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Take the Fight to the Terrorists
By Donald H. Rumsfeld Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the suicide bomb attack on the U.S.
Marine barracks in Beirut -- a blast that killed more than 240 Americans. Soon
after that attack, President Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz asked
me to take a leave of absence to serve as presidential envoy for the Middle
East. That experience taught us lessons about the nature of terrorism that are
relevant today as we prosecute the global war on terror. President Bush has made clear that the only way to win today's war is to
carry the fight to the enemy and roll back the terrorist threat to civilization,
"not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power." He has it
right. To understand why, one might consider what happened in Beirut two decades
ago. The attack occurred when a truck loaded with explosives drove into the U.S.
Marine barracks near the Beirut airport. The logical response was to put cement
barricades around buildings to prevent another truck bombing. But the terrorists
soon figured out how to get around those defenses: They began lobbing
rocket-propelled grenades over targets that had such barricades. So the tendency
was to hunker down even more. We started seeing buildings along the Corniche,
the popular seaside boardwalk that runs for several miles along the sea in
Beirut, covered with a metal mesh, so that when rocket-propelled grenades hit
the mesh, they would bounce off, doing little damage. So what did the terrorists
do next? They adapted. They watched the comings and goings of embassy personnel
and began hitting soft targets -- people on their way to and from work. For
every defense, the terrorists moved to another avenue of attack. Within six months of the first attack, most of the American troops had pulled
out of Lebanon. And from that experience, terrorists learned important lessons:
that terrorism is relatively low-cost and deniable and can yield substantial
results at low risk and often without penalty. Terrorism can be a great
equalizer -- a force multiplier. And terrorism works in the sense that it can
terrorize, and even a single attack can influence public opinion and morale and
alter the behavior of nations. Terrorists have a sizable advantage. A terrorist can attack at any time, in
any place, using virtually any technique. And it is not possible to defend every
potential target at all times in every place against every form of attack. That
being the case, the way to defeat terrorists is to take the war to them -- to go
after them where they live and plan and hide, and to make clear to states that
sponsor and harbor them that such actions will have consequences. That is what President Bush is doing in the global war on terrorism. When our
nation was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the president immediately recognized that
what had happened was an act of war and must be treated as such; that weakness
can invite aggression; and that simply standing in a defensive posture and
absorbing blows is not an effective way to counter it. He declared that
henceforth "any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks
against the American people becomes an enemy of this country . . . . Any person,
organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is
complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.
[And] any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses
weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world -- and will
be confronted." In the ensuing two years, thousands of terrorists have been
rounded up, and two terrorist regimes have learned the president meant what he
said. The approach the president has taken is even more important as we enter a new
and dangerous security environment. When the Marine barracks was attacked two
decades ago, the terrorist threat was largely conventional. Terrorists had
weapons that could kill dozens or, in the case of the Beirut bombing, hundreds
of people. On Sept. 11 the terrorists grew even bolder -- bringing the war to
our shores and using techniques that allowed them to kill not hundreds but
thousands. Yet consider: the explosive agent used on Sept. 11 was jet fuel. The
danger we face in the 21st century is the threat posed by terrorists armed not
with jet fuel but with more powerful weapons. If the world does not deal with
the emerging nexus between terrorist networks, terrorist states and weapons of
mass murder, terrorists could one day kill not more than 240 people, as in
Beirut, or more than 3,000 people, as on Sept. 11, but tens of thousands -- or
more. That is why our country and our 90-nation coalition is at war today. That is
why we have forces risking their lives at this moment, fighting terrorist
adversaries in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere across the world. It is also
why it is critical that our country recognize that the war on terrorism will be
long, difficult and dangerous -- and that as we deal with immediate terrorist
threats, we also need to find ways to stop the next generation of terrorists
from forming. For every terrorist whom coalition forces capture, kill, dissuade
or deter, others are being trained. To win the war on terror, we must also win
the war of ideas -- the battle for the minds of those who are being recruited by
terrorist networks across the globe. That is why the president is using all elements of national power: military,
financial, diplomatic, law enforcement, intelligence and public diplomacy.
Because to live as free people in the 21st century, we cannot live behind
concrete barriers and wire mesh. We cannot live in fear and remain free people.
The task is to stop terrorists before they can terrorize. And even better, we
must lean forward and stop them from becoming terrorists in the first place.
That is a lesson we learned two decades ago in Beirut. The writer is secretary of defense.
Sunday, October 26, 2003; Page B07
