ABSTRACT
As they prepared for military strikes against Afghanistan, American military officials wanted to ensure that they had a clear chain o f command and that the decision making process would be in the hands o f American military officers, namely, the commander of U S. Central Command, Army General Tommy Franks. The actual attacks on the Taliban regime would follow the pattern o f previous operations whereby military action began with concentrated airstrikes. Although the overwhelming majority o f forces used in the attacks were American, NATO provided a variety o f both direct and indirect military assistance to the United States. Actual combat operations began on 7 October 2001, with air and cruise missile attacks launched by both American and British forces.
