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America's `long war' on terror

Simon Tisdall

It probably means a war unlimited by time or space.

THE BUSH administration's re-characterisation of its "global war on terror" as the "long war" will be seen by critics as an admission that the United States has started something it cannot finish. But from the Pentagon's perspective, the change reflects a significant upgrading of the "generational" threat posed by worldwide Islamist militancy which it believes to have been seriously underestimated.

The reassessment, contained in the Pentagon's quadrennial defence review presented to Congress on Monday, presages a new U.S. drive to rally international allies for an ongoing conflict unlimited by time and space. That presents a problematic political, financial, and military prospect for many European NATO members including Britain, as well as Middle Eastern governments.

According to the review, a "large-scale, potentially long duration, irregular warfare campaign including counter-insurgency and security, stability, transition and reconstruction operations" is unavoidable. Gone is the talk of swift victories that preceded the 2003 Iraq invasion. This will be a war of attrition, it says, fought on many fronts.

Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Defence Secretary, suggested at the weekend that western democracies must acknowledge they were locked in a life or death struggle comparable to those against fascism and communism. "The enemy have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire."

Mr. Rumsfeld denied the Iraq invasion had proved a catalyst for terrorist recruiting — but said Al-Qaeda and its allies wanted to use Iraq as a central front in the longer struggle. "A war has been declared on all of our nations [whose] futures depend on determination and unity," he said. "As during the Cold War, the struggle ahead promises to be a long war."

The Pentagon review proposes a series of measures to equip the U.S. and its allies for the long haul, built around a whopping overall 2007 defence budget request of more than $550 bilion. They include increased numbers of special forces and unmanned spy aircraft or drones, expanded psychological warfare and civil affairs units (for winning "hearts and minds," and more sea-borne, conventionally armed long-range missiles.)

Addressing the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London on Monday, Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of U.S. Central Command covering the Middle East, said winning the "long war" would necessitate increased "security assistance, intelligence-sharing and advice" for allies. "Regional nations must participate and lead the fight," he said.

A revived, enlarged international coalition would enable the U.S. to "re-posture" its Middle East ground forces once stability in Iraq and Afghanistan was achieved, he said. Ground forces that remained would be quickly deployable elsewhere; and their area of operations would grow to include old and new theatres in south-east Asia and east and north Africa.

Just as important, Gen. Kimmitt said, was enhancement of the coalition's ability to forge long-term diplomatic and law enforcement networks to counter the "astonishing" use by Al-Qaeda and its allies of "physical and virtual domains" such as the Internet. "The fundamental forces at play in the long war should not be underestimated," he said.

The "long war" doctrine, formalising President Bush's earlier division of the world into good guys and evil-doers, is likely to prove highly controversial as its wider implications unfold. Washington will be accused of scaremongering and exacerbating the clash of cultures. In the U.S. itself, the human and moral cost of the post-9/11 wars is already under critical scrutiny.

Gen. Kimmitt admitted the biggest battle could be at home: "It will require strong leadership to continue to make the case to the people that this war is necessary and must be prosecuted for perhaps another generation." — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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