Advantage Outsiders
With the balance tilted against it, the Taliban regime will soon find itself vanquished.

Lull Before The Storm
Amid calls for a quick and decisive end to the conflict, Afghanistan has been abuzz with talk of an imminent Northern Alliance ground war against the Taliban.

History's Pointers
The Soviet Union's 10 years campaign in Afghanistan — a conflict that led to a humiliating withdrawal and, some say, its eventual breakup
— can be a learning experience for
the US.

COVER STORY: WAR ON TERRORISM

GAME PLAN USA

Maroof Raza is a defence analyst and a visiting lecturer at the University of Middlesex in Britain.

America's Grand Strategy

# Eliminate Taliban's politico-military ability to foment terror.
# Replace the Taliban regime with a pro-West regime.
# Use Afghanistan as a future influence over southern and Central Asia.

Political Aims

# Eliminate Osama bin Laden.
# Replace the Taliban leadership with a modern Islamic government.
# Create a coalition government of the Northern Alliance, various ethnic factions and the Pashtoons.
# New government to be acceptable to the US, Islamabad and most Central Asian states.

Us Military Objectives

# Destroy large targets such as airfields, aircrafts, ammunition dumps and military command centres.
# Induct special forces and use them for spectacular raids and to pinpoint high-profile targets for air and cruise missile attacks.
# Use helicopter gunships to hit at Taliban's defences from the air to soften them for ground attack.
# Secure an airfield, such as in Mazar-e-Sharif by airborne troops to provide military support to the Northern Alliance.

Taliban's Responses

Militarily resist the capture of territory in Pashtoon areas of south and east Afghanistan.
# Prevent the advance of the Northern Alliance into cities like Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Kabul by cost-effective defensive battles from vantage points.
# Integrate with the civilian population, making it difficult for the US to target them from the air.
# Scatter itself across the rugged Afghanistan countryside making it impossible to eliminate them.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Mumbai Restaurant:
India Jones

Mumbai Puppetry Festival: Toccata

Bangalore Restaurant: Chung Wah

Kolkata Exhibition : Life Is Beautiful