- LONDON (Reuters) - Former
U.S. President George Bush warned that America's war against terrorism
is likely to be a long, drawn-out conflict very different from the quick
war with Iraq he presided over in 1991.
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- In an interview with the BBC's Breakfast With Frost program
broadcast on Sunday, Bush, father of the current U.S. president, George
W. Bush, said it would be challenging to find all those responsible for
the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States.
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- ``It's not going to be a 100-hour ground war, or a very
effective TV air war -- it's going to be a different kind of a battle to
win, but there's a determination, among world leaders, that we will win,''
he said.
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- He said the prime suspect, Saudi-born militant Osama
bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan, was a ``much more shadowy''
enemy than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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- ``What's different about it is in the Gulf War we could
see what the enemy had done...we knew where his forces were and we knew
we had to mobilize public opinion and press support.
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- ``...the enemy is much more shadowy, much more difficult
to pin down, and Osama bin Laden seems to be the most evil of evil, but
there are a lot of other people in this network.''
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- Bush said a Middle East peace settlement was ``much more
urgent'' to help combat terrorism.
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- ``...If we can get a settlement it would certainly eliminate
some of the rationale on the part of the terrorists and that rationale
relates to the Palestine question and feeling that the United States is
unfair,'' Bush said.
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- ``So I think it makes it much more urgent that we find
a way...to get a settlement.''
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- Bush acknowledged that some Muslim states would be reluctant
to back any retaliatory action on Afghanistan if innocent Muslims were
killed, but he was confident they would support America's fight against
terrorism.
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- ``I think what's happened is so offensive that world
opinion will recognize this as a landmark and will stay supportive,'' he
said.
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- Bush also lauded the ``special relationship'' between
the United States and Britain, which was ``strong and intact.''
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- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Britain ``stands
shoulder to shoulder'' with the United States in its retaliation for the
suicide airliner attacks on New York and Washington.
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