June 5th 2004
Rumsfeld: Forget 20th-century mindset - US military capability in Asia will be boosted even if troop strength is reduced
THE capabilities of American forces stationed in Asia will not be reduced but will be even greater - even as cutbacks in United States troop deployment worldwide are being studied.
'Our defence budget is in excess of US$400 billion (S$684 billion) a year and for a nation that wishes nobody else harm and is interested in contributing to a more stable and peaceful world, that's a sizeable investment,' said US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday.
He was responding to a question about the evolving US security role in the region at a roundtable discussion with three journalists from The Straits Times, Asian Wall Street Journal and the Melbourne Age yesterday.
There is an ongoing review of American military bases and troop deployment around the world, including in Europe and Asia.
Bringing the review into sharp relief was the recent announcement that a brigade of 3,600 American troops would be pulled out of South Korea.
This was viewed by some quarters as a degradation of the US military commitment in Asia.
'People should stop thinking in 20th-century ways in the 21st century,' commented Mr Rumsfeld, who is in Singapore to attend the three-day security conference, called the Shangri-La Dialogue.
'If we replace five aircraft with three that would have twice the capability and twice the range, we've not reduced the deterrent or offensive capability,' he said. 'In fact, we have increased the offensive capability substantially.
'We are making investments that we think are appropriate. And it will result in increased capability on our part regardless of numbers of things - people, ships, tanks, planes, you name it,' he said.
'In some cases, those numbers will go up. In other cases, the numbers will go down. But in every case, the capability of the US, and most certainly in this region, will be greater regardless of the 20th-century fixation on numbers of things.'
On the American initiative to protect Asia's most vital and vulnerable waterway, the Straits of Malacca, the defence secretary said it was an idea in its early stages. Consultations were still going on.
'The exact shape is yet to be devised and defined,' he said. 'Any implication that it would impinge in any way on the territorial waters of some countries would be inaccurate. It just wouldn't.'
The US proposal, called the Regional Maritime Security Initiative, has become a hot-button issue after littoral states Indonesia and Malaysia reacted negatively to it.
Under the plan, US Navy vessels and troops would patrol the Straits or respond in emergencies together with regional navies.
A terrorist attack on commercial shipping in the narrow and busy channel would disrupt global trade. About a third of the world's trade and half of the world's oil supply pass through the 800km- long Straits.
Mr Rumsfeld also said that he would not be bringing up the initiative when he meets Asean defence officials here.
'It's not something I am involved in,' he said. The proposal was first mooted by US Commander of Pacific Forces, Admiral Thomas Fargo.
On the terrorist threat in South-east Asia, he said that it was a serious one.
'Funds are still going to terrorist networks, we know the networks are global, we know they exist in this part of the world,' he pointed out.
The only solution was for countries to cooperate to fight terrorism by sharing intelligence and information.
'If terrorists can kill 3,000 people from all nations, of all faiths, men, women and children, using commercial airliners, they can kill multiples of that using biological weapons,' he said.
'The intelligence one sees about the appetite of terrorists to get increasingly powerful weapons is reasonably persuasive.'
