28 February 2003
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US Department of State
International Information Programs
Washington File
_________________________________
27 February 2003
(Joint Chiefs Chairman discusses terrorism, WMD, Iraq) (1190) By Judy Aita Washington File U.N. Correspondent New York -- The United States is facing "the most dangerous situation of the last 50 years" from a nexus of terrorists, nations hostile to the United States, and weapons of mass destruction, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said February 26. Air Force General Richard Myers said that "the threat is distinct from our past adversaries because terrorists intend to murder the innocent. We can't contain them and we can't deter them" through the conventional military and political strategies of the past. The present lethal combination of the terrorists' fanaticism and belligerent governments such as Iraq, which have weapons of mass destruction to sell or a safe havens to offer, "are a real threat to our nation and to our allies," he said. In a major address to The Economic Club of New York, Myers compared the wars and adversaries Americans have faced in the last 50 years and the military, economic, and diplomatic means used to defeat them with the new challenges posed by terrorists. "It is a very different kind of war," he said. "The enemy we face today uses brutal attacks on civilians in an attempt to force their will on us. Clearly it is a war not limited to just tanks, ships and airplanes." "To win we're going to need all instruments of our national power against a foe that cannot be contained; that cannot be deterred," he said. "In my mind defeating global terrorists and disturbing their quest for weapons of mass destruction is the most significant challenge, perhaps, any chairman (of the Joint chiefs of Staff) has faced," Myers said. He noted that February 26 was the 10th anniversary of the first bombing of the World Trade Center, an event Americans thought was unique. However, it has been followed by 17 major attacks around the world which have killed thousands of innocents. Most Americans, he said, grew up with the idea that war involved tanks, battleships, airplanes and soldiers fighting in open combat. Today "a terrorist can slip into our society, hide among us, and strike with no warning" using biological and chemical weapons or other means of mass destruction. In Afghanistan, Myers said, one of the first things the United States learned from the documents left behind by Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization was their great interest in chemical and biological agents and the desire for nuclear weapons. "What makes our current situation so much more dangerous is that terrorists will use these weapons of mass murder if they can get hold of them," he said. The cooperation between terrorists and governments such as Iraq, he pointed out, "is not necessarily based on a common ideology. Rather both share a mutual malice towards the United States, our allies, and our ways of life." "The type of support given can be complex arrangements to provide weapons or technology, training, or money or it can be as simple as giving them a safe haven for the terrorist to move about freely and to plan and train and organize their next attack," he said. Myers said that the association between al-Qaeda and Iraq has gotten stronger since al-Qaeda was forced from Afghanistan. He referred to Secretary of State Colin Powell's report to the U.N. Security Council in early February in which the secretary said that Iraq has been harboring the network of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden, since May 2002. Al-Zarqawi, Powell said, has established a base of operations with nearly two dozen other extremists, and is running a poison and explosive training center in northeastern Iraq. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said that the relationship between Iraq and terrorists is also a danger for the region as well. "The presence of terrorists threatens those who seek a modern society," he said. "I can't imagine a business enterprise wanting to set up anywhere close to where terrorists are operating and working on their experiments." "But it is not just economic prosperity of the region at risk, but the welfare of millions of people," Myers said. Americans from every walk of life and in every venue "have to ask some hard questions" on how to wage the war against terrorism, he said: "Before we act do we have to wait for the actual firing of a gun or airplane to appear over the horizon? Is it acceptable to assume such risk when the next blow could mean the deaths of thousands of men, women, and children? To what extent do a free people have a responsibility to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists?" Questioned about the possibility of military action in Iraq, Myers said that military planners have "three pages of things that could go wrong" in a military intervention as well as plans "to try to mitigate those risks." "We're taking about war, if the president so orders," he said. After Desert Storm, Kosovo and Afghanistan "the American public has been lulled in the sense that war somehow can be antiseptic and it is not. War is war. People get killed in wars, innocent people are killed. " Contingency plans take into account the possibility of Iraq setting fire to oil wells, a major problem in northern Iraq because of the poisonous gases that would be released; blowing up bridges; and destroying dams to flood river valleys, he said. Prolonging any decision to take action or giving U.N. weapons inspectors more time, he said, will not hinder military operations undertaken later in the year. The heat of a desert summer will not be a problem, Myers said. "We can fight at night. We are a day/night force both on the ground and in the air. Nights are very cool in the desert." There are also no limits on how long U.S. troops could stay in the region, he added. They could remain "virtually indefinitely" by changing battle groups and rotating troops. The biggest missing piece in the operation's plans is the use of Turkey. If Turkey allows U.S. forces to use their soil, "that's everything we really want," Myers said. Although the Iraqi army is still a large force, some units are 60 percent of what they were in the early 1990s, he said. Troops stationed near Baghdad are "reasonably robust" but in other parts of the country military preparedness has atrophied and the Iraqi military is not near the capability it had when it invaded Kuwait in 1990. If Iraq does destroy the al-Samoud 2 missiles as the U.N. has ordered, it would "clearly be a help," he said, "but in the margins." The "big unknown" is whether Saddam Hussein will use chemical and biological weapons in any military action. "He has used it on his neighbors and his own people in the past," Myers pointed out. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)