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- In recent months, the eyes of the world have rightly
focused on the threat to American interest and values in the Balkans. At
the same time, we cannot afford a national case of farsightedness that
precludes us from focusing on threats closer to home, such as the potential
danger of a chemical or biological attack on U.S. soil. The United States
now faces something of a superpower paradox. Our supremacy in the conventional
arena is prompting adversaries to seek unconventional, asymmetric means
to strike our Achilles' heel. At least 25 countries, including Iraq and
North Korea, now have -- or are in the process of acquiring and developing
-- weapons of mass destruction. Of particular concern is the possible persistence
in some foreign military arsenals of smallpox, the horrific infectious
virus that decimated entire nations down the ages and against which the
global population is currently defenseless. Also looming is the chance
that these terror weapons will find their way into the hands of individuals
and independent groups -- fanatical terrorists and religious zealots beyond
our borders, brooding loners and self-proclaimed apocalyptic prophets at
home. This is not hyperbole. It is reality. Indeed, past may be prologue.
In 1995 the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo used sarin gas in its attack on
the Tokyo subway and also planned to unleash anthrax against U.S. forces
in Japan. Those behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were also gathering
the ingredients for a chemical weapon that could have killed thousands.
In the past year, dozens of threats to use chemical or biological weapons
in the United States have turned out to be hoaxes. Someday, one will be
real. What would that day look like? A biological agent would sink into
the respiratory and nervous systems of the afflicted. The speed and scope
of modern air travel could carry this highly contagious virus across hemispheres
in hours. Indeed, the invisible contagion would be neither geographically
nor numerically limited, infecting unsuspecting thousands -- with many,
in turn, communicating the virus to whomever they touch. The march of the
contagion could accelerate astoundingly, with doctors offering little relief.
Hospitals would become warehouses for the dead and the dying. A plague
more monstrous than anything we have experienced could spread with all
the irrevocability of ink on tissue paper. Ancient scourges would quickly
become modern nightmares. Welcome to the grave New World of terrorism --
a world in which traditional notions of deterrence and counter-response
no longer apply. Perpetrators may leave no postmark or return address --
no tell-tale signs of a missile launch, no residue of TNT that can be traced
to a construction site, no rental truck receipts leading to the foolhardy
suspects. In fact, their place of business may be a number of countries
that are conducting bioengineering under the guise of pharmaceutical research.
Penicillin for the poor, or ebola for the enemy? Who is to say, and with
what deterrent is America left? Preparation is itself a deterrent. By minimizing
the death and destruction would-be terrorists hope to spawn, we reduce
the likelihood they will even try. Yet a chemical or biological strike
on American soil could quickly surpass any community's ability to cope.
As part of a federal interagency effort launched last year by President
Clinton and led by the National Security Council, the Defense Department
is doing its part to prepare the nation for the catastrophic consequences
of an attack that unleashes these horrific weapons. Because it has long
prepared to face this grim possibility on the battlefield, the military
has unique capabilities to offer in the domestic arena as well. Several
core principles are guiding our efforts. First, any military assistance
in the wake of a domestic attack must be in support of the appropriate
federal civilian authority -- either the Department of Justice or the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. Second, an unequivocal and unambiguous chain
of responsibility, authority and accountability for that support must exist.
Third, military assistance should not come at the expense of our primary
mission -- fighting and winning our nation's wars. A special Task Force
for Civil Support is being created to ensure that we have the military
assets necessary to help respond domestically while still meeting our foremost
mission. Fourth, our military response efforts will be grounded primarily
in the National Guard and Reserve. In contrast to their more familiar role
of reinforcing active-duty forces overseas, our guard and reserve are the
forward-deployed forces here at home. Special National Guard teams are
being positioned around the nation to advise and assist communities upon
request. Finally, we must not and trample on American lives and liberties
in the name of preserving them. Fears about the military's role in domestic
affairs are unfounded, as evidenced by a long history of reasonable and
successful military support to communities ravaged by natural disasters,
such as fire and flood. As in the past, any military support will be precisely
that -- support. Both legal and practical considerations demand it. The
Posse Comitatus Act and the Defense Department's implementing policies
are clear -- the military is not to conduct domestic law enforcement without
explicit statutory authority, and we strongly believe no changes should
be made to Posse Comitatus. Also clear is that the military's unique assets
are most valuable when used to supplement -- not supplant -- continuing
federal, state or local efforts. This is one of the reasons we are helping
to train the local emergency "first responders" in 120 cities
under a program mandated by Congress and now being transferred to the Justice
Department. But merely managing the consequences of an attack is not sufficient.
We must be vigilant in seeking to interdict and defeat the efforts of those
who seek to inflict mass destruction on us. This will require greater international
cooperation, intelligence collection abroad and information gathering by
law enforcement agencies at home. Information is clearly power, and greater
access to information will require the American people and their elected
officials to find the proper balance between privacy and protection. There
need be no fear or foreboding by the American people of the preparations
of their government. On the contrary, the greater threat to our civil liberties
stems from the chaos and carnage that might result from an attack for which
we had failed to prepare and the demands for action that would follow.
Mere months before the attack on Pearl Harbor shocked America out of its
slumber, Walter Lippmann wrote, "Millions will listen to, and prefer
to believe, those who tell them that they need not rouse themselves, and
that all will be well if only they continue to do all the pleasant and
profitable and comfortable things they would like to do best." The
race is on between our preparations and those of our adversaries. We are
preparing for the possibility of a chemical or biological attack on American
soil because we must. There is not a moment to lose.
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- (Mr. Cohen is the Secretary of Defense. The following
op-ed column by him appeared in The Washington Post July 26. COPYRIGHT:
07/26/99 -- Public Domain -- no republication restrictions. Please Credit
the Washington Post.)
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