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T V Parasuram in Washington
The United States said on Wednesday that its goal in Afghanistan was the "elimination" of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network Al Qaeda and the Taleban militia.
"The Taleban is going to go. The Al Qaeda is going to go. It is just a matter of time," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
The immediate task of the US "is to see how fast we can eliminate the Al Qaeda and the Taleban from that country", he said in an interview to Voice of America.
Rumsfeld said, "Our task is not him (capturing or killing Laden). It is the network that he is a part of and all of the people in it and stopping them from killing people. That is what we are trying to do."
Asked whether there would be a problem if the post-Taleban government in Afghanistan included so-called moderate members of the militia, he said: "That is a strange combination. 'Moderate' with 'Taleban.' I don't know if it is a good fit."
"They have been so repressive and killed and starved so many people that using the word 'moderate' is a reach."
On the possibility of the Northern Alliance moving in and setting up a government, Rumsfeld said, "The people of Afghanistan are going to decide what their government is going to look like."
When asked how long the military campaign would take and whether it could be accomplished before the onset of winter, he said: "No one can know. The overall effort to defeat terrorism is going to take years."
PTI
The War on Terrorism: The Complete Coverage
The Terrorism Weblog: Latest Stories from Around the World
External Link: For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html
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