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Rumsfeld “Assures” U.S. Troops Of “Victory In Afghanistan”
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U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld walks alongside General Frank Hagenbeck after arriving at the Bagram air base, north of Kabul, Saturday.
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BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, April 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Despite international criticism and reports on the high number of civilians killed during the U.S.’ attack on Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “assured” U.S. troops of “victory” in the “war against terrorism” during a visit Saturday to this air base north of the Afghan capital Kabul.
He also called for greater vigilance and urgent action to prevent “terrorists from getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction and reminded troops that war was not just confined to Afghanistan”, news agencies reported as he met a group of around 300 out of the 3,000 U.S. soldiers stationed at this former Soviet base.
"When this war is won, and it will be won, you will be able to say that 'I fought with the coalition in Afghanistan against terrorism' and you will be remembered for it."
Rumsfeld was greeted by Major General Frank Hagenbeck, the U.S. commander of coalition forces here, and British task force commander Brigadier Roger Lane as he stepped off a U.S. military plane from Kyrgyzstan.
Later, he flew to Kabul, some 30 miles south of here, for meetings with interim Afghan cabinet leader Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim.
It is his second trip to Afghanistan since the Taliban regime collapsed in November under heavy U.S. air strikes and Afghan opposition ground attacks, but Rumsfeld stressed that the war was not confined to one country, alluding to reports that Iraq is the next target on the U.S.’ list.
Asked to define success in the global war, he said, "We will have gone to the countries that have provided safe havens and sanctuaries and we will have stopped them.
"We will have rooted out the basic global terrorist network. We will have created an environment that is inhospitable to terrorism."
He said an urgent mission in the war was to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. President George W. Bush has named Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" for their alleged efforts to “develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons”, despite reports that Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction.
The president has repeatedly threatened military action against Baghdad, pointing to a possible extension of the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign.
The war was launched last October following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, blamed on Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Meanwhile, last Tuesday, a top Al-Qaeda leader, who was captured in Pakistan, has told interrogators the network knows how to make a radiological bomb and has been working to acquire one, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The official said the latest revelations by Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaeda's operations director, “confirmed U.S. suspicions that al-Qaeda was trying to build a so-called ‘dirty bomb’” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
U.S.-led forces are hunting remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan but have had little contact in recent weeks.
Eight U.S. soldiers were killed in the last major action, codenamed Operation Anaconda, targeting a fortified mountain stronghold in eastern Paktia province in March.
Rumsfeld earlier Saturday visited Bishkek and thanked Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev for the former Soviet republic's support in the war on terror.
Some 1,900 coalition troops are deployed at the Manas military airbase near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
U.S. and coalition troops are also based in two other Central Asian states, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
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