Re:Speaking of Saddam Hussein...

The Pentagon

'Guerilla Operation' in Afghanistan Means Long War, Defense Expert Says
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 05, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - Despite America's dramatic progress in the war in Afghanistan, the conflict "is not even close to being over," and is "increasingly a guerilla operation," resembling Vietnam, a leading defense and national security expert said Wednesday.

According to Frank Gaffney, President of the Center for Security Policy, the enemy in Afghanistan is no longer the government, but a much harder to pin down guerilla movement.

"And that's tough because we have seen in a number of places like Vietnam, where you can't figure out who's a civilian and who used to be a Taliban and who still is an al Qaeda," said Gaffney in a speech to the Leadership Institute in Washington.

Gaffney believes Afghans themselves must eradicate the Taliban from their country.

"There is a chance that you will see this guerrilla operation dried up or ripped up by the roots by the people of Afghanistan and not by the U.S. Marines or special operations forces going cave to cave," said Gaffney.

And even when the war against terrorism is concluded in Afghanistan, Americans must remain on the lookout for terrorism, Gaffney warned.

"We must resist the siren song which we are already starting to hear and I'm sorry to say from some conservative circles, that now we can go back to putting more money into the Department of Education and other dubious domestic priorities.

"Not only does al Qaeda have franchise operations in an estimated 60 countries around the world but you have regimes either directly or indirectly affiliated with or at least supportive of those who are willing to use terror as a weapon against the United States and at the top of that list is (Iraq's) Saddam Hussein," Gaffney said.

America, according to Gaffney, failed to finish the job in the Persian Gulf War by failing to topple Saddam. If he had been toppled, Gaffney said, America would not need to be fighting its current war against terrorism.

"[Saddam] also is going to be back in the business of threatening us and doing so with the weapons of mass destruction that were not eliminated in [Operation] Desert Storm. We know they include chemical weapons, we know they include biological weapons and there is a decent chance that by now they include some of kind of nuclear capability," said Gaffney.

http://www.conservativenews.org/ViewPentagon.asp?Page=\Pentagon\archive\200112\PEN20011205b.html

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