Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jan 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
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Author: Paul Richter, Times Staff Writer

RUMSFELD SAYS DRUG WAR SHOULD START AT HOME

WASHINGTON-Secretary of Defense-designate Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress 
on Thursday that the nation's drug problem can best be attacked by drying 
up demand rather than targeting foreign traffickers, as the U.S. military 
is trying to do in Colombia.

At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, 
Rumsfeld said that he cannot yet offer a specific opinion on the U.S. 
military's $1.6-billion effort in Colombia but believes that illicit drug 
use is "overwhelmingly a demand problem."

"If demand persists, it's going to find ways to get what it wants," 
Rumsfeld said. "And if it isn't from Colombia, it's going to be from 
someplace else."

Rumsfeld, who served as Defense secretary for 13 months in 1975 and 1976, 
noted that efforts to halt the drug trade in Colombia may hurt neighboring 
countries, as traffickers migrate across borders in search of safer ground. 
"If I were the neighboring countries, I'd worry about the spillover as 
well," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Rumsfeld emphasized that he has yet to be briefed in detail on the U.S. 
effort, which involves equipping and training Colombia's military to fight 
narcotics traffickers. But his comments seemed to suggest philosophical 
distance between his views and those expressed by the incoming Bush team.

During the campaign, President-elect George W. Bush indicated his general 
support for the Clinton administration's effort in Colombia, which has 
bipartisan backing on Capitol Hill. Comments by some members of the Bush 
team have been taken to suggest that the new administration might even step 
up the Colombia campaign.

Rumsfeld in the past has expressed skepticism about using the military to 
counter drug trafficking.

At a 1997 round-table discussion among former Defense secretaries at the 
Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta, Rumsfeld said that 
efforts to use the military in this way are "nonsense," a transcript of the 
session shows.

If the drug problem is ever solved, he said, it will be the result of 
concerted efforts by "families, and by people, and by schools, and by 
churches, not by the military."

The contents of the transcript were reported Wednesday by the Washington 
Post and confirmed by Hodding Carter III, a former State Department 
spokesman who moderated the 1997 session.

Rumsfeld, who is the first member of the administration's national security 
team to face a confirmation hearing, was praised by Democrats and 
Republicans alike for his skills and public service. Committee members of 
both parties, including Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the current chairman, 
said that they support his nomination.

Rumsfeld is a former Illinois congressman, White House chief of staff, 
ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and corporate chief 
executive. National missile defense is likely to be the most prominent 
defense issue in coming months, as the Bush administration considers 
whether to continue the Clinton administration's plans to build a limited, 
land-based system to intercept a small number of enemy missiles.

Rumsfeld told the panel that he is firmly committed to deploying a missile 
shield as a means of countering the intercontinental threat from countries 
such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq, nations that have been acquiring 
missile technology.

He said that the failure of the most recent two flight tests should pose no 
obstacle to the project. He recalled that the Corona satellite program, in 
the 1950s and 1960s, was marred by a dozen test failures, yet "they stuck 
with it and it worked and it ended up saving billions of dollars."

Critics of the program have argued that it could cost $60 billion to $120 
billion and unravel international arms control treaties, with no certainty 
it will ever work as planned.

But Rumsfeld said Americans should consider the risks they will face if no 
missile shield is built. Unless the United States finds a way to protect 
allies from enemy missiles, those nations are likely to acquire missile 
technology and fuel a new arms race.

And despite the presence of the huge U.S. nuclear arsenal, the threat of a 
small-scale missile attack could force the White House one day either to 
capitulate on national strategic goals or try to "preempt" an enemy strike, 
as the Israelis did when they struck an Iraqi nuclear plant.

"Either we acquiesce and change our behavior. . . or we have to preempt," 
he said.

Rumsfeld argued that the United States should reduce its peacekeeping role 
around the world and leave such missions to a greater extent to allies.

"I don t think it's necessarily true that the United States has to become a 
great peacekeeper," he said.

When the United States puts a military detachment or a ship in a troubled 
area, it becomes a potential target for adversaries, much more so than the 
assets of allies, he said.

"When we're on the ground, we tend to become a bit more attractive . . . as 
a target," he said.

Rumsfeld came under sharp questioning from Levin on comments he had made in 
a conversation with President Nixon 29 years ago at the White House, where 
Rumsfeld was then an aide.

In the comments, which were taped, Nixon used racist language in 
criticizing his vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, for remarks Agnew had made 
on a trip about Africans and African Americans. Rumsfeld acknowledged 
Nixon's words, though it is not clear from the tape whether he shared 
Nixon's views or simply didn't want to contradict his boss.

Rumsfeld told the committee that he "didn't remember the meeting or the 
conversation at all." But he insisted that he did not agree with "offensive 
and wrong characterizations."

Coincidentally, as Rumsfeld was testifying, the bipartisan space panel he 
formerly headed was issuing its final report.

The report called for the United States to step up protection of satellites 
and other equipment in space, even though such steps are likely to provoke 
widespread objections abroad.
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