Do not underestimate the determination of the American people to punish the masterminds of the terrorist attacks in the United States, former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger said here Wednesday.
"The will is there. The [military] capacity is there," he told a gathering of delegates in Singapore attending a two-day forum sponsored by US business magazine Forbes.
Weinberger, defense secretary under former President Ronald Reagan and currently the chairman of Forbes, predicted a "long and difficult period" as the United States embarks on a war against the terrorists who engineered the attacks in New York and Washington.
The attacks on the twin 110-story World Trade Center and the Pentagon have put the world's sole superpower at a turning point in its history, said Weinberger.
"America is now at a point where we have to call on our great strengths," he said.
"People who perpetrated it are international criminals," he added.
Weinberger however cautioned against military reprisals until there was clear evidence about the identities of the perpetrators and the states that backed them.
"It's not going to do any good to bomb blindly," he said.
The United States needs to find "accurately" the people responsible for the attacks that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing, he said.
US President George W. Bush has promised retaliation against those responsible and top US officials have said evidence gathered showed wealthy Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden was the prime suspect.
The Saudi exile resides in Afghanistan and Washington has warned US retaliation will target not just terrorists but the nations that shelter them -- SINGAPORE (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
