June 5th 2004
SINGAPORE - US Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called on Asian nations on Saturday to join the United States in its offensive against international terror groups, warning that terrorists could strike again in the region.
In a speech to an Asian security conference, dubbed the Shangri-La Dialogue, Mr Rumsfeld described the global war on terrorism as a battle against ideological extremism.
'Because it cannot be appeased, it must be confronted on many fronts by all civil societies,' he said. The remark echoed comments he made on Friday that any government hoping to 'make a separate peace' with terrorists would be mistaken, just as Europeans who had hoped to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930s were.
Speaking of the broader US-led war against terrorism, Mr Rumsfeld said in his prepared remarks: 'Despite considerable progress, the reality is that today we remain closer to the beginning of this struggle than to its end.'
He cautioned that despite some successes in capturing Al-Qaeda figures in Asia and foiling some plots, the terrorists will strike again.
'Let there be no doubt, there is more to come.'
In his speech on Saturday to an audience that included defence ministers, military officers, lawmakers and private security experts from about 20 countries, he called the US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq examples of progress in the global war on terrorism. He spoke only briefly about Iraq, saying success there would be 'a victory for the security of the civilised world.'
The Iraq issue arose during a question-and-answer session, during which he asserted that there was no acceptable alternative to continuing on the current path to a democratic Iraq.
He cited five unacceptable alternatives: civil war, anarchy, ethnic cleansing, a splintering of the nation into ethnic enclaves, and the rise of a 'junior version' of the deposed Saddam Hussein.
'As soon as we can, we want to pass off the security responsibilities to the Iraqis,' but not before they are ready, he added.
On Friday, Mr Rumsfeld noted that some governments, which he didn't identify, see less of a threat in terrorism than the Bush administration does, and he compared the split in views to the early days of Hitler's rule in Germany in the 1930s. That is when, he said, some European nations argued that Hitler's military threats were empty rhetoric.
