White House Tells U.N. That Conflict Could Well Expand

The Bush administration has notified the United Nations in a letter disclosed Monday that the war on terrorism might extend beyond Afghanistan and could continue even if Osama bin Laden is killed or captured.

The message--dated Sunday and signed by John D. Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the world body--puts the U.N. on notice that the current U.S. military action is unlikely to end quickly and could become far more controversial in countries that now nominally support the effort.

Negroponte wrote that the United States is acting under the right of self-defense in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and near Washington. He said the U.N. Security Council had approved the action in advance, and cited a resolution adopted just after hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Monday that the letter “states what the president has been saying all along, that the United States reserves the right to defend itself wherever it is necessary.”

Fleischer said that right extends beyond going after Bin Laden.

“If Osama bin Laden was gone tomorrow, the war would continue beyond tomorrow,” he said. “One person . . . really is not what this is about.”

Nevertheless, a drawn-out military campaign would put additional pressure on an ideologically diverse coalition of countries, many of which have offered rhetorical support to the U.S.--sometimes only in private--but very little else.

“We’ve worked aggressively on the diplomatic front,” President Bush said Monday, “developing a broad and strong coalition of countries who are united with us and involved in our campaign.”

But the coalition is so delicate that a State Department official declined to say what each country is being asked to do or to identify nations that have not publicly announced their support. The Bush administration is so concerned about the public reaction in some key coalition countries that it has decided to let each government determine how closely it wishes to be identified with the U.S. effort.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed Monday to play an enhanced role in maintaining support for the U.S. campaign against terrorism. On Thursday, he will address via closed-circuit television “town hall” meetings in 10 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles.

Although Annan will be preaching to the converted when he speaks to the American public, the sessions should have the symbolic effect of binding the U.N. chief in the eyes of other nations to the U.S. war aims.

The administration envisions the world body playing an increased role in holding together the coalition. Although U.S. officials have been reluctant to concede to the U.N. any authority in determining the extent of American military action, the administration clearly wants Annan’s backing.

So far, only Britain is believed to have joined the U.S. in the airstrikes against Afghanistan. Bush said Sunday that France, Germany, Canada and Australia have offered to supply military forces for later action.

Key Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations, meanwhile, have chosen to remain on the sidelines.

For instance, none of the nations surrounding Afghanistan is known to have permitted the use of bases for military action, despite a determined effort by the administration to court them. Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division have taken up positions in Uzbekistan, but with the public understanding that they will be used to rescue downed pilots.

Fleischer shrugged off anti-American demonstrations in some Muslim countries: “There have been protests before, and I anticipate there will be protests in the future.”

Nevertheless, Nongovernmental experts say that demonstrations will limit the ability of even authoritarian Middle Eastern and Central Asian governments to assist the United States.

“Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan are all worried and should be worried,” said Michael McFaul, a military expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “All three of those regimes are pretty fragile.”