From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: U.S. Must Re-Think Strategy to Counter WMD Threat Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 14:14:50 -0600 To: believer@telepath.com Source: US Newswire http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/1113-110.txt Weapons Expert: U.S. Must Re-Think Military Strategy U.S. Newswire 13 Nov 11:04 Weapons Expert: U.S. Must Re-Think Military Strategy to Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat To: National Desk Contact: Paige McMahon, 301-320-8053. WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The United States must devise a military force structure that makes possible a rapid response to future crises involving the manufacture and use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), according to Dr. Robert W. Chandler, an expert in the strategic use of WMD and author of the just-published The New Face of War (AMCODA). "The U.S. military mindset is rooted in conventional warfighting tactics," said Chandler, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former NATO advisor. "While we're waiting for carriers to get in position and making sure our fighters have a place to park, Iraq is working feverishly to hide and disperse the targets, which are the labs and equipment they use to manufacture biological and chemical weapons. At this moment, they're unbolting machinery and moving it to sheds, to civilian residential areas, and out into the desert. By the time we get around to bombing the factories, they will be empty." "Wouldn't it be nice to destroy their weapons of mass destruction before they are hidden? Targets are perishable, like vegetables and fruit. If you wait too long to destroy them, by the time you hit the target it's rotten. That is to say, they've been altered to the point where they have little or no value," said Chandler, who predicted Iraq's intent to use weapons of mass destruction to alter the balance of power in the region in his first book, Tomorrow's War, Today's Decisions (AMCODA, 1996). "Absent a U.S. ability to strike quickly and deliberately, we have no choice but Saddam's current game, where he plays the Roadrunner and we are the wiley coyote," Chandler said. "Saddam Hussein sees peace with U.N. weapons inspections as a losing proposition. From his perspective, the only chance to end the hated weapons inspections and end the U.N.'s economic sanctions is to force his countrymen to endure another bombing in the anticipation that it will satisfy world opinion, and lead to the lifting of sanctions. Dictators like Saddam Hussein need to pay off those who keep them in power military, police, and other elites with economic rewards. The sanctions cut into that ability and weaken his grip. "The U.S. must create a Global Reconnaissance and Strike Complex to develop the military strategy and fighting forces necessary to meet the challenges of WMD proliferation. We must mass firepower, not forces, and we must make time work to our advantage." ------ Dr. Chandler lives and works in McLean, Va., and is available for broadcast and print interviews. You may contact Chandler directly at his office, 703-356-6927 (evenings/weekends: 703-883-0324). For more information, contact Paige McMahon, 301-320-8053. -0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 11/13 11:04 Copyright 1998, U.S. Newswire ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************