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Bush Pursues U.S. Military "Revolution" Post-Sept 11
CHARLESTON, South Carolina, Dec 11 (News Agencies) - President George W. Bush Tuesday called the "war on terrorism" the "military and moral necessity of our time" and said victory requires a "revolution" in how U.S. forces operate.
"While the threats to America have changed, the need for victory has not," he told a crowd of students at a military college here exactly three months after September 11 terror strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Pointing to successes in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, he said he would work to make U.S. forces more mobile, with enhanced technology; expand intelligence-gathering, especially by human agents; and combat proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, especially to so-called "rogue states".
"Our military has a new and essential mission. For states that support terror, it's not enough that the consequences be costly. They must be devastating," the president declared.
"Afghanistan has been a proving ground for this new approach. These past two months have shown that an innovative doctrine and high-tech weaponry can shape and then dominate an unconventional conflict," said Bush.
The U.S. leader ordered strikes on Afghanistan's Taliban militia after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September attacks that left some 3,500 people dead.
Bush praised Russia as "a crucial partner" in battling proliferation and said Moscow and Washington would step up cooperation to deny "rogue states" the ability to develop, acquire and use chemical, biological or nuclear arms.
"Our two countries will expand efforts to provide peaceful employment for scientists who formerly worked in Soviet weapons facilities. The United States will also work with Russia to build a facility to destroy tons of nerve agent," the president said.
But Bush also warned Russia that he remains committed to developing "limited and effective defenses against a missile attack" - which Moscow opposes - and reiterated his determination to scrapping the 1972 treaty that prohibits them.
"We must move beyond the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a treaty that was written in a different era, for a different enemy. America and our allies must not be bound to the past. We must be able to build the defenses we need against the enemies of the 21st century," he said.
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