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Rumsfeld Says Much Achieved; Much Remains to Be Done
Monday, July 22, 2002
By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

"Perhaps the most important measure of progress is the flow of people," Rumsfeld said. Since January, many hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons have returned to their homes. "When it comes to coalition efforts," he noted, "the Afghan people are voting with their feet. They're coming back to their homes, and indeed it is a vote of confidence in the progress that's being made in Afghanistan."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Nine months into the global war on terror, the nation remains closer to the beginning than to the end, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today at the Pentagon.

"Our goal is that Afghanistan not become a base for global terrorist networks again," Rumsfeld said. "That work is, of course, by no means complete. Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives are still at large, some in Afghanistan; others fled across the borders waiting for the opportunity to return."

Danger remains as evidenced by the recent attacks on U.S. forces in Kandahar and in Oruzgan Province, he said, and by the several firefights between Pakistani forces and al Qaeda. Coalition forces continue to search caves and to sweep for arms, intelligence and small pockets of terrorists.

In recent weeks, he noted, local Afghans have told U.S. and coalition forces where to find weapons caches, which are then either destroyed or turned over to the Afghan National Army.

To date, Rumsfeld noted, the campaign has caused fewer tragic losses of civilian life than any war in modern history. He said U.S. and coalition forces have gone to "extraordinary lengths not only to avoid civilian deaths but to save civilian lives."

"It's an unfortunate fact of war than inevitably innocent civilians are killed," he said. "This has been true throughout the history of warfare and it remains true even in this age of advanced technology and precision-guided munitions."
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

* DoD News Briefing -- Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers
United States Department of Defense
Monday, July 22, 2002 (2:25 PM ET)

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