Air Strikes Not Enough Against Iraq: Rumsfeld
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| U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said air strikes alone would not be enough to destroy Iraqi weapons. |
WASHINGTON,
July 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Airs strikes alone would
not destroy Iraq's well-hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction,
said U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after a visit to
Suffolk, Virginia.
"[The
Iraqis have learned] how best a country can achieve denial and
deception and avoid having precise actionable location of things
known," Rumsfeld said in response to a reporter's question on the
effectiveness of making direct hits on arms dumps from the air.
Due
to issues of mobility and stealth, Iraq could theoretically evade air
strikes, rendering them ineffective.
"A
bio laboratory can be on wheels in a trailer ... is moveable. So the
idea it's easy to simply do what you suggest ought to be done from the
air is a misunderstanding of the situation," he said.
In
addition, "The Iraqis have a great deal of what they do deeply
buried."
"They
have chemical, biological weapons. They have an enormous appetite for
nuclear weapons," Rumsfeld said.
"So
its a bigger task than that suggests," commented the Defense
Decretory.
His
comments were the latest in a continuing public debate over U.S.
President George W. Bush’s administration’s goal of toppling Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein from power, reports news agencies.
Bush
has already approved the use of covert action against Saddam and
directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to increase support to
Iraqi opposition groups; the leaders of six will visit Washington next
month.
The
U.S. Congress supports Bush in calling for Saddam's removal, but has
some reservations, including questions concerning the actual severity
of the Iraqi threat against the U.S., numbers of U.S. casualties in a
war, the response of U.S. allies, the leadership of Iraq if Saddam is
defeated, and the duration of a U.S. military presence there.
News
agencies report the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will discuss
Iraq policy with congressional concerns in mind Wednesday and Thursday
with foreign policy analysts and former U.S. government officials,
reports news agencies.
Currently,
no representatives from the White House are scheduled to appear before
the Senate panels addressing U.S. policy on Iraq.
On
Sunday, the Washington Post reported that top U.S. military officers
were questioning the need for altering the current U.S. policy of
containing Saddam Hussein to one that would actively seek his ouster.
Bush
administration officials dismissed those concerns within same report
stating that military officials were in no position, and were not
qualified, to make political decisions.
In
addition, concerning unbridled support for such an attack on Iraq,
Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) said he does not believe the American
public would automatically support whatever Bush proposes, reports
news agencies.
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