Down in the dirt: how and when might the war in Afghanistan end? Here's an inside look from a Special Forces expert.

• Author: Guthrie, Richard
• Position: Cover Story

NEWS ANALYSIS

THE U.S. CAMPAIGN AGAINST TERRORISM THAT BEGAN with weeks of intense bombing in Afghanistan may appear to be striking blows at random. But there is an unseen order to the battle that is likely to become evident over the coming weeks and months.

America's high-tech array of surveillance equipment and advanced weapons will play a role in attacking those believed responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Yet it will be the foot soldiers in the dirt and the darkness who will ultimately put their training, their motivation, and their ingenuity on the line.

The tip of America's spear has already been revealed in lightning-quick night assaults by Special Operations forces, elite units of the Army, Navy, and Air Force trained for unconventional missions.

The full force of the U.S. attacks will commence when political conditions are right and when the forces have enough information to virtually ensure the capture or killing of suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, destruction of his Al Qaeda terror network, and removal of the Taliban, the current rulers of Afghanistan, who have harbored bin Laden and his followers.

THE MOST LIKELY APPROACH OF THE MILITARY operation involves throwing an ever-tightening net around the Taliban and Al Qaeda with the ongoing bombing campaign; repeated quick assaults that inflict losses and gather intelligence, coupled with help from Afghan fighters opposed to the Taliban; and finally rooting out bin Laden and his leadership in a direct attack.

But mission planners know that any campaign can encounter unforeseen, sometimes huge risks. In Afghanistan, U.S. forces face a harsh, mountainous geography, a fierce climate, an unstable political situation, and the likelihood of cave-to-cave warfare that may be needed to flush out Al Qaeda. Taliban fighters are battle-hardened by 20 years of continuous fighting, including 10 years against the Soviet Union (now Russia), which they defeated. For that reason, U.S. planners would be likely to offer an alternative: the Special Operations units.

SPECIAL OPERATIONS SOLDIERS ARE VOLUNTEERS, selected under stringent standards for intelligence, physical fitness, and judgment. Special Operations include these units:

* Army Rangers, small infantry units that pack light, travel fast, and specialize in night operations.

* Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, experts at organizing, training, and directing...