The United States continued its retaliation against the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and the terrorist bases of al Qaeda Monday in an effort to create the conditions for sustained anti-terrorist and humanitarian relief efforts, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
The bombings hit targets near Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and the southern city of Kandahar, along with Taliban forces in Mazar-e Sharif, in the northern part of the country.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in a press conference Monday that strategic targets were bombed by both American and British forces in an effort to gain supremacy of the skies for the pending war on terrorism. Symbolic of the absence of America's ill will toward the Afghan people, a humanitarian effort was also continued Monday in which approximately 37,500 rations of food and medicine were dropped from the skies.
Rumsfeld attempted to make the mission's purpose clear by outlining the expected outcomes of the military operations, which included acquiring intelligence for future operations against the Taliban and making it difficult for terrorists to use Afghanistan as a base of operations.
'Our day-one efforts were designed to disrupt and destroy terrorist activities in Afghanistan, and to set the conditions for future military action and to bring food and medical supplies to the Afghan people,' said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in attendance at Rumsfeld's Monday press conference.
Rumsfeld said he believed the first steps toward those goals have been achieved.
'Based on our early assessment, we believe that we have made progress toward eliminating the air defense sites that [we] have located around the country,' Rumsfeld said. 'We also believe we've made an impact on the military airfields that were targeted. We cannot yet state with certainty that we destroyed the dozens of military, command and control, and leadership targets we selected.'
The Taliban released statements Monday that a U.S. helicopter was shot down. In rebuttal, Rumsfeld confirmed that 'all U.S. military personnel and aircraft that took part in [Sunday's] strike are safe and accounted for, notwithstanding the statements by Taliban to the contrary, which are flat untrue.'
In Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed that 20 civilians were killed by U.S. strikes near the Kabul airport Sunday.
Rumsfeld did not address those claims but said the attacks were not focused on the city itself, but on military sites outside of Kabul.
Initial steps to preventing future acts of terrorism were put into motion Monday as President Bush swore in former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge as the assistant to the president for homeland security.
The mission of the Office of Homeland Security is to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks, according to the White House.
'Although there is no way attacks of terror can ever be completely prevented, it is possible to reduce the possibilities of terrorist attacks in the future,' said UW-Madison political science Professor David Leheny.
As America stands on an alert of heightened security, anything out of the ordinary is investigated as associated with terrorism, according to Leheny.
'The U.S. is taking the precaution that there is a 100 percent chance of another terrorist attack,' he said.
What makes the situation difficult is that terrorists play by a different set of rules, according to UW-Madison political science Professor Michael Barnett.
'We are dealing with a group of individuals with no boundaries, people who believe any means are justified,' he said.
A man recently died in Boca Raton, Fla., of the first case of anthrax inhalation in the United States in 25 years. Reports of a second case of anthrax inhalation have also surfaced at the same office building.
Anthrax is a rare, fatal disease thought to be used in biochemical warfare.
'Anthrax must have been placed in that Florida office building,' anthrax expert Dr. Meryl Nass said in an interview. 'It takes anywhere from 50,000 to 1 million spores for someone to get sick and that amount just doesn't float in through the ventilation system.'
