The Pentagon said Friday it is ready for any assignment, anywhere, despite the strain from the war on terror. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said there are no plans to invade Iraq or any other country.
Rumsfeld, saying it would be "dumb" to discuss military planning publicly, refused to discuss the administration's thinking Friday about how to deal with Saddam. Rumsfeld said, however, that military action would not necessarily require as much buildup as some estimate.
Asked about worries the military is stretched thin, Rumsfeld said: "Nine-tenths of everything that was taken over to the Middle East to fight the war of Desert Storm a decade or so ago was brought back unused. ... What it suggests is it's hard to know precisely what you think might be necessary, and you want to be safe, so you have more than you think you're going to need."
In the past, Rumsfeld has endorsed the view that military action would be more effective than diplomacy if the goal is to stop Saddam from threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Regarding the war on terrorism, Rumsfeld stressed it was not America's war "only". "Terrorism has existed for decades as low intensity conflict," he said. "Its rise in recent years, its frequency, its intensity and its scope, as well as its use by terrorist networks with global reach" makes it a problem for civilized nations everywhere.
Currently, 68 nations are supporting the global war on terrorism, he said. Twenty nations have deployed more than 16,000 troops to U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility. Coalition partners make up more than half the non-Afghan forces working with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
