Washington, Oct 22: Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld questioned whether the United States was doing enough to win the war on terrorism, citing “mixed results'' in the fight against Al-Qaida in a pointed memo to top Defense Department officials last week. Rumsfeld said the us-led coalitions would win in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not without “a long, hard slog.'' He wrote that the United States “has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis'' but has made “somewhat slower progress'' tracking down top Taliban leaders who sheltered Al-Qaida In Afghanistan.
The memo, dated October 16 and first reported by USA oday today, offered a much more stark assessment of the global war on terrorism than contained in Rumsfeld's public statements.
“It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog,'' he wrote.
White House Press Secretary Scott Mcclellan, traveling with president George W Bush in Australia, declined to comment on the memo.
Bush, however, talked about the war on terrorism with reporters aboard air force one en route to Canberra, where he planned to discuss this with Prime Minister John Howard.
“I've always felt that there's a tendency of people to kind of seek a comfort zone and hope that the war on terror is over,'' Bush said. “And I view it as a responsibility of the United States to remind people of our mutual obligations to deal with the terrorists.''
Bureau Report