Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Rumsfeld on target again

Friday, April 11, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

THE FIGHTING DIDN'T END when Saddam's statue came tumbling down for the world to see. This was a moment of triumph that we should treasure, but as long as our soldiers and Marines are being wounded and killed the war isn't over.

Don't tell the families of the Marines killed and wounded, the night after the statue was pulled down, that the war is over. Digging out the fanatics, who came to Iraq to kill Americans, and the Saddam loyalists isn't a finished job. Our fighting forces will handle them, as they did the Republican Guard divisions, but the combat casualty lists must cease before we can say this war is over. Dealing with snipers and pockets of trained killers is nasty work that can be, and usually is, costly in human suffering and heartbreaks.

Where did the people entering Iraq to kill Americans originate? Probably the largest number of them, some with weapons, came from Syria. Others came from Jordan, Egypt and even the West Bank communities. It was common knowledge that hundreds of Palestinians living in Lebanon were sent to Iraq, through Syria, to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. and British forces.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made this issue public in late March. He received heavy criticism from many diplomats and Syrian President Bashar Assad for making this accusation in a public forum.

Rumsfeld's statement and warning to Syria didn't shock me. Almost every day in the Middle East I watched Arab, U.S. and BBC television interviews with the men in Syria and Jordan who were boarding transportation to Baghdad. When asked why they were going, the reply given the most often was, "to kill Americans."

This week in a press conference, Rumsfeld was again asked about Syria and he replied, "I've accurately observed that they would be well-advised to not provide military capabilities to Iraq. They seem to have made a conscious decision to ignore that. Senior regime people are moving out of Iraq into Syria, and Syria is continuing to send things into Iraq. We find it notably unhelpful. ..."

Again, he was right on target.

A couple of phone calls from angry readers asked me to say something about those Iraqis who were looting government offices and stores. As an American, I would feel uncomfortable being too critical of people brutally oppressed for more than two decades now feeling the weight of tyranny lifted from their shoulders.

The breaking of store windows and the looting of the stores has taken place in our country for reasons of less importance. How about riots, looting and burning of cars and homes because an NBA or NFL team won or lost a championship game?

Vice President Dick Cheney got carried away with his rhetoric when dismissing critics of war strategy. He called many of them "retired military officers embedded in TV studios." Like Cheney, I found reasons to disagree with some commentators but wouldn't belittle any of them because they were in a comfortable studio. Where was Cheney during Gulf War II, Gulf War I, Vietnam and our other minor and major operations since he became old enough to wear a military uniform?

People tell me that retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey got under the skin of both Cheney and Rumsfeld. I don't know McCaffrey, but do know his parents. His father was a highly respected combat officer who rose to the rank of lieutenant general. Barry McCaffrey was wounded three times in combat and holds the Distinguished Service Cross with an oak leaf cluster. Before retiring he was the youngest four star general in the Army. The only member among the president's security advisers who has felt the sting of combat and planned war strategy is Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks reflects the best of America during military briefings from Central Command in Qatar. He would probably rather be with his former outfit, the fighting 3rd Infantry Division, than facing the television cameras. He has been invaluable to our military image in the work he is now doing before the cameras.