As US and British forces bombed the UN de-mining office today, US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte delivered aletter to the UN Security Council stating that the US was attacking Afghanistan in self-defense. The letter statedfurther that the US reserved the right to attack other countries as well as it prosecuted its so-called “war onterrorism.”

In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said that more countries will be asked to help the U.S. respond tothe Sept. 11 attacks in what will be a long and diverse campaign of action. As part of this effort, President Bushis scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Washington today. Germany has played a crucial andgrowing role in the US response to the September 11 attacks, a role that has worried some US allies in NATO.

To help us understand how the UN and NATO fit in to the US and British attacks on Afghanistan we turn to PhyllisBennis and Andreas Zumach.

Guests:

• Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. Bennis is a journalistspecializing in Middle East and United Nations issues and author of ??Calling the Shots: How Washington DominatesToday’s UN (Interlink, 2001).
• Andreas Zumach, Zumach writes on NATO, the Balkans and the UN for Die Tageszeitung and is based inGeneva.