option 1: look for a "print this page" icon near the article you want to copy and paste into an email to send to the list. copy that text and paste into the body of the email by selecting edit > paste special > unformatted text. send to LBO, etc.
option 2: send the Web page to yourself in _PLAIN_ text, not stylized/HTML. copy and paste into the body of the email by selecting edit > paste special > unformatted text. send to LBO. (netscape, opera, and MS explorer all have this as an option)
also, it's be really cool to include the link
here's the formatted article:
October 18, 2001
THE NORTHERN ALLIANCE
U.S. Tactics Thwart Afghan Rebels
By DAVID ROHDE
OPDARA, Afghanistan, Oct. 17 — The night, like the 10 before it, began with the same sense of expectation and ended with the same sense of disappointment. Soldiers in this rebel-held mountainside village watched American warplanes bomb the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the distance and ignore front-line Taliban positions in the valley below.
An American plane raised hopes here Tuesday night by bombing the Barikab munitions dump on the Taliban side of the valley. But tonight the estimated 7,000 Taliban soldiers across the no man's land sat as they have since the bombing began — unchallenged.
It appeared once again today that American military planners were worried that bombing the Taliban front-line positions here, just 35 miles north of Kabul, would open the door for Northern Alliance forces to take the Afghan capital. Pakistan, a vital American ally in the campaign against Osama bin Laden's network in Afghanistan, is strongly opposed to any move on Kabul by the alliance.
The Northern Alliance is dominated by ethnic Tajiks from northern Afghanistan. The Taliban are dominated by ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan. Many Pashtuns also live in Pakistan.
But President Bush said today that intensive bombing attacks in Afghanistan were intended to pave the way for anti-Taliban ground forces — as opposed to American or British troops — to overthrow the Taliban leadership. But neither he nor military spokesmen reconciled the apparent contradiction.
The sense of marginalization and frustration with American policy and tactics is growing here among Northern Alliance officials and soldiers.
They argue that the United States is being drawn into a lengthy, largely ineffective, bombing campaign that will fail to dislodge the Taliban. They say that the Taliban cannot be quickly dislodged without an immediate ground offensive.
The mood, sights and sounds here have changed radically since the first night of bombing. Then, several dozen soldiers gathered here on the top of mud brick homes and gleefully watched bombs fall on Kabul. Tonight, on a black, moonless and mostly silent night, a lone sentry sat catnapping while other soldiers slept at home with their families. At 3 a.m., he shook his head in exasperation. The American planes had not come again.
The American campaign to oust the Taliban has settled into a routine pattern here. At dusk, the village and valley below, known as the Shamali Plain, are oddly serene. At 5 p.m. sporadic gunfire can be heard on the mountaintop ridge behind this village. Two Taliban soldiers could be seen through field glasses standing on the ridge and peering down at the village below. The gunfire continued. But the front line did not change.
As the sun set at 6:30, the first of what would be dozens of sets of headlights appeared from the Taliban- held southern end of the valley. The headlights are from dozens of Taliban vehicles that stream out of Kabul every night, full of soldiers and possibly civilians who come here to avoid the danger of American bombing in Kabul.
Soldiers here say that on some nights they have seen more than 100 cars come out of the city. Tonight, at least 50 were seen at different times.
Muhammad Assif, a 30-year-old local commander, stared at the Taliban convoys tonight with a look of dismay on his face. Asked if he would like to see the Taliban vehicles in positions below bombed, he said: "Of course we would. They are our enemy."
Northern Alliance officials offer a view of the Taliban's military strength that differs from that of officials in Washington. A day after Lt. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the "combat power of the Taliban had been eviscerated," an alliance general whose forces have moved into the outskirts of the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, contradicted him.
The rebel general said in a telephone interview that Taliban forces had mounted a half dozen counterattacks on his forces throughout the day. There was a Taliban attack on the trenches he captured, he said. But the attacks did not succeed.
Taliban forces here, just north of Kabul, also appeared to be fighting on. In the late afternoon, light artillery and small arms fire could be heard echoing throughout the valley.
A small number of shells and tracer bullets fired from Taliban positions arced high over the valley before hitting alliance-held positions below. The alliance forces returned fire, sending small puffs of smoke into the sky.
But after years of fighting here, life all around the valley continued as if nothing were happening. The village mullah's peaceful call to prayer at dusk was occasionally interrupted by gunfire, but no one seemed to notice.
A flock of birds sang from one of the few trees in this arid village, which is surrounded by a small maze of stone walls and grape vineyards. The occasional explosion did not interrupt their song.
At midnight tonight, the most powerful force in the sky seemed to be the Milky Way, whose bright bands of stars illuminated the moonless sky. Earlier in the day, what appeared to be an American B-52 bomber was seen flying overhead. But the only evidence of American planes tonight were occasional flashes from Kabul to the south.
In this village, disappointment about the American campaign was palpable. Earlier in the evening Kazem, a 25-year-old commander here, happily described how an American plane had attacked a Taliban base on the other side of the valley for the first time on Tuesday night. He said there was a strategic ridge and a base there, and he clearly hoped American forces would begin bombing the Taliban's front-line position here.
"There are munitions there and heavy weapons," he said. "There was a fire."
But tonight that base and scores of other Taliban positions sat as they have since the bombing began — untouched. The Northern Alliance did not attack them and neither did the Americans
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/18/international/asia/18EXOD.html?searchpv=nytToday&pagewanted=print