CARLISLE, Pa. - The United States is faring poorly in its effort to counter ideological support for terrorism, in part because the government does not communicate effectively, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.
Rumsfeld made the remark in response to a question from a member of his audience at the Army War College, where he delivered a speech on the challenges facing the country in fighting a global war on terrorism.
"If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a `D' or a `D-plus' as a country as to how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place in the world today," Rumsfeld told his questioner. "I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country" for countering the extremists' message.
Rumsfeld's audience consisted of more than 300 war college students and faculty members.
He said the al-Qaida terrorist network and affiliated Islamic extremists are the most brutal enemies the United States has ever seen.
Rumsfeld cited several examples of vicious terrorist assaults, including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and warned that unless the terrorists are stopped they will continue to seek the means to launch even deadlier attacks on the West in the years ahead.
"The enemy we face may be the most brutal in our history," Rumsfeld said. "They currently lack only the means — not the desire — to kill, murder millions of innocent people with weapons vastly more powerful than boarding passes and box cutters," he added, referring to the terrorists who hijacked the airliners Sept. 11.
It was Rumsfeld's first visit to the war college in his more than five years as secretary of defense.
Earlier in the day he stopped at Shanksville, Pa., to see for the first time the place where hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field on Sept. 11, killing all 40 passengers and crew shortly after hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The government's Sept. 11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to take control of the cockpit.
On a walking tour of the site among rolling hills and meadows, Rumsfeld paused in front of several rows of angel-shaped figures on rods that bear the names of the passengers and crew who died aboard the airliner. In brief remarks, Rumsfeld said he wanted to pay his respects at "the place where America really started to fight back."
At the spot where Flight 93 plowed into the earth, Rumsfeld laid a wreath and bowed his head for a moment.
In his speech at the war college , Rumsfeld described the Shanksville site as a place where "a group of ordinary airline passengers gave their lives in extraordinary defiance of foreign hijackers and in defense of our country's capital."
Rumsfeld said progress is being made in the global war on terror, particularly in making it more difficult for terrorist groups to recruit, train, raise money, establish sanctuaries and acquire weapons. But he stressed that more needs to be done.
"The strategy must do a great deal more to reduce the lure of the extremist ideology by standing with those moderate Muslims advocating peaceful change, freedom and tolerance," he said.
Rumsfeld noted that his audience included an Afghan military officer and one from Iraq.
"We welcome you and are proud to stand with you in the cause of freedom," the defense secretary said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327...hhqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Bombing them and creating ethnic strife doesn't help there buddy boy. Any person (idiot) can create an army and attack an opposing force. Winning over the hearts and minds of people that you oppose is another matter.
This last paragraph means that any idiot can create an army but it doesn't mean an idiot can win a battle.
Rumsfeld made the remark in response to a question from a member of his audience at the Army War College, where he delivered a speech on the challenges facing the country in fighting a global war on terrorism.
"If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a `D' or a `D-plus' as a country as to how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place in the world today," Rumsfeld told his questioner. "I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country" for countering the extremists' message.
Rumsfeld's audience consisted of more than 300 war college students and faculty members.
He said the al-Qaida terrorist network and affiliated Islamic extremists are the most brutal enemies the United States has ever seen.
Rumsfeld cited several examples of vicious terrorist assaults, including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and warned that unless the terrorists are stopped they will continue to seek the means to launch even deadlier attacks on the West in the years ahead.
"The enemy we face may be the most brutal in our history," Rumsfeld said. "They currently lack only the means — not the desire — to kill, murder millions of innocent people with weapons vastly more powerful than boarding passes and box cutters," he added, referring to the terrorists who hijacked the airliners Sept. 11.
It was Rumsfeld's first visit to the war college in his more than five years as secretary of defense.
Earlier in the day he stopped at Shanksville, Pa., to see for the first time the place where hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field on Sept. 11, killing all 40 passengers and crew shortly after hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The government's Sept. 11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to take control of the cockpit.
On a walking tour of the site among rolling hills and meadows, Rumsfeld paused in front of several rows of angel-shaped figures on rods that bear the names of the passengers and crew who died aboard the airliner. In brief remarks, Rumsfeld said he wanted to pay his respects at "the place where America really started to fight back."
At the spot where Flight 93 plowed into the earth, Rumsfeld laid a wreath and bowed his head for a moment.
In his speech at the war college , Rumsfeld described the Shanksville site as a place where "a group of ordinary airline passengers gave their lives in extraordinary defiance of foreign hijackers and in defense of our country's capital."
Rumsfeld said progress is being made in the global war on terror, particularly in making it more difficult for terrorist groups to recruit, train, raise money, establish sanctuaries and acquire weapons. But he stressed that more needs to be done.
"The strategy must do a great deal more to reduce the lure of the extremist ideology by standing with those moderate Muslims advocating peaceful change, freedom and tolerance," he said.
Rumsfeld noted that his audience included an Afghan military officer and one from Iraq.
"We welcome you and are proud to stand with you in the cause of freedom," the defense secretary said.
___
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327...hhqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Bombing them and creating ethnic strife doesn't help there buddy boy. Any person (idiot) can create an army and attack an opposing force. Winning over the hearts and minds of people that you oppose is another matter.
This last paragraph means that any idiot can create an army but it doesn't mean an idiot can win a battle.