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Raouf--AP AFTERMATH Some 20 missiles hit Khartoum's Shifa plant. The U.S. says the facility produced nerve-gas ingredients. Sudan says it made medicine [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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For Clinton, ordering the retaliatory strike could have been political quicksand. Because of his apparent preoccupation with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, pundits and politicians in Washington have accused him of ignoring the nation's interests. But giving the go order instantly opened him up to the charge that he was simply trying to "change the subject" and pull the country's gaze away from the tawdry scandal. The "Wag the Dog" scenario, everyone called it, after the recent movie in which the White House hires a Hollywood filmmaker to create a phony war in the media to divert attention from the President's sexual misdeeds. Sure enough, a few voices were raised, most loudly by Senator Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican, who questioned the timing of the attacks and also wondered why Clinton had suddenly become willing to use force, an uncharacteristic response for him. But most other political leaders, of both parties, supported Clinton. (One good argument for believing the President: Cohen, a Republican, said on television that he would have resigned if he thought there had been any political shenanigans in Clinton's decision.) The President had briefed congressional leaders before the cruise missiles were launched, and they found the evidence against bin Laden compelling. Foreign judgments split on predictable lines, with old allies, led by Britain's Tony Blair, fully behind the U.S., and many Muslim states against. Russian President Boris Yeltsin said he was outraged and condemned the attacks, but his aides suggested that he was miffed because he had not been consulted in advance. Clinton can, on the other hand, be rightly accused of milking the drama for all the presidential aura it contains. He announced the attack on television while vacationing in Massachusetts, then ostentatiously flew back to Washington aboard Air Force One, made another speech from the solemn surroundings of the Oval Office and then went back on holiday. But what he said was sound, warning that the battle against terrorism was only beginning and that the U.S. was in for the long haul. "We will not yield to this threat," he said. "This will be a long, ongoing struggle between freedom and fanaticism." Senior U.S. officials tell TIME that the cruise-missile attacks of last week are part of a larger military, diplomatic and covert operation that the U.S. will conduct against bin Laden's network and other terrorist organizations over the coming months. This does not mean simply follow-up attacks on the camps in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is preparing plans to hit other terrorist targets around the world. The CIA is reviewing secret operations to disrupt bin Laden's activities, and economic warriors are looking for ways to freeze his fortune of around $300 million. Bin Laden's friends and allies seem undeterred. In Islamabad, Pakistan, last Friday, the preacher in the city's second largest mosque was Maulvi Abdullah, a strong supporter of bin Laden. The white-bearded preacher told 500 assembled Muslims that "killing Americans is now allowed under Islam." He asked them to raise their hands in favor of "death to all Americans." In Khartoum, Hassan al-Turabi, Sudan's National Islamic Front leader, told the Associated Press, "America incarnates the devil for Muslims." With the sides so fiercely drawn, the world has become much more dangerous for everyone. --Reported by Tim McGirk/Islamabad and Mark Thompson and Douglas Waller/Washington
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