2 August 2005News Yahoo.com
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attacked signs of a softening will to wage a global war against terrorism, declaring that "resolve, not retreat" was needed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Let there be no mistake: we are a nation at war against terrorist enemies seeking our surrender or retreat. This is a war," he said in a speech prepared for delivery to a business group in Dallas.
The air force jet that was supposed to take Rumsfeld to Dallas developed a minor mechanical problem so he wound up delivering an abbreviated version of the speech by telephone from Abilene, Texas, Pentagon officials said.
In his prepared remarks, Rumsfeld took aim at commentary in the press questioning whether the United States was actually engaged in a "war on teror".
"While most of our people remain determined to defend our country and our way of life, a few seem attracted to the idea that we might be able to retreat behind some convenient fictions that could obscure the lethality and intention of the enemy," he said.
Vowing no surrender to militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "Resolve -- not retreat -- is what is needed in this war -- this test of wills. Courage -- not concession - is called for."
Rumsfeld said the enemy was not just al-Qaeda, the group that carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Defense Department headquarters in Washington.
"Rather it is a shifting network of violent and fanatical adherents to extremist ideologies -- a movement that uses terrorism as their weapon of choice," he said.
"This is not a war between the United States and the Muslim faith, or between the west and Muslim faith. It is a struggle within the Muslim faith," he said.
Rumsfeld acknowledged that some Muslims "remain confused about the motivations and intentions of the terrorists and about our coalition's defense of the young democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq."
But he rejected as "absolute nonsense" the view that the bombings in London and elswhere were in retaliation for the war in Iraq and the US military presence in Afghanistan.
And he said the argument that a retreat from Afhgnaistan and Iraq would put an end to future terrorist attacks "also is nonsense."
"Terrorists do not seek a negotiated settlement with the west or with moderate Muslims," he said.
