At Camp Doha, some 50 kilometers from the Iraqi border, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told American troops that state sponsors of terrorism must be punished.
Without specifically mentioning Iraq by name, Rumsfeld said the soldiers are on the front lines against a dangerous foe.
"You are the people who stand between freedom and fear, between our people and a dangerous adversary that cannot be appeased, cannot be ignored and cannot be allowed to win," he told around 1,000 troops assembled in an air-conditioned gymnasium on a boiling hot afternoon Sunday, according to AP.
Rumsfeld left little doubt he was aiming his words at Baghdad, which he often says is among nations that support international terrorist groups and could help them gain access to weapons of mass destruction.
These states, he said, "do need to be stopped so that they cannot threaten or hold free people hostage to blackmail or terror."
He again alluded to Iraq in describing the ultimate goal of President George W. Bush's war on terror.
"It will not end until state sponsors of terror are made to understand that abetting terrorism is unacceptable and will have deadly consequences for the regimes that do so," Rumsfeld made clear.
On Monday, Rumsfeld was meeting with Kuwait's top leader, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and the crown prince and Prime Minister, Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah al-Sabah. In addition, he was holding a joint news conference with Kuwait's defense minister.
Camp Doha, where Rumsfeld addressed the troops, is a sprawling military base that Kuwait turned over to U.S. forces after they evicted Iraq's occupation army in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It is home to an estimated 2,000 U.S. troops with M-1A1 Abrams tanks, M2-A2 Bradley infantry vehicles, surface-to-surface missiles, self-propelled cannons, Patriot anti-missile batteries and Apache attack helicopters, AP added.
During his address, Rumsfeld emphasized to the troops that they could one day join the battle against terrorism. "The global war on terrorism began in Afghanistan, to be sure, but it will not end there," he conveyed.
He refused to offer a clue, during a question and answer session, where the next fight would be. He told one soldier there was no doubt that the full might of the American military would be called upon again.
"I'm certainly not in a position to tell you when, why or where," he claimed.
It was Rumsfeld's first visit to Kuwait as defense secretary. He was in the Gulf in October to visit Saudi Arabia and Oman, but did not get to the smaller countries in the northern Gulf.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement Sunday asserting Iraq has neither made nor possessed weapons of mass destruction in over a decade.
"Iraq has said on many occasions that it is not concerned with entering the mass destruction weapons club. ... We left it in 1991," said the statement. (albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
