Agence France Presse
| The "others" would include Syria, I'd guess. And Soddy Arabia. |
A top US commander has warned Iran and other countries to never underestimate US air and naval power, discounting concerns that US forces are too tied down in Iraq to respond to challenges elsewhere. "To deter a nation state you should never underestimate the air and naval power of the United States," Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in the Middle East told AFP in a joint interview late Friday.
| "We'll fcuk you up and break your shit!" |
"Why the Iranians would want to move against us in an overt manner that would cause us to use our air or naval power against them would be beyond me. We have an incredible amount of power," he said.
| "Those people are crazy!" |
Abizaid made the comment in response to questions about whether the United States, with the bulk of its ground forces tied down in Iraq, had the means to meet other contingencies such as a conflict with Iran. The United States suspects Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing atomic weapons, but Tehran insists it is for civilian purposes only. Abizaid pointed to the US-led assault on the former Iraqi rebel stronghold of Fallujah as an example of the overwhelming force that can be brought to bear by a relatively small ground force of some 10,000 troops backed by air strikes launched from US aircraft carriers in the Gulf. "And so we can generate more military power per square inch than anybody else on earth, and everybody knows it," he said. "If you ever even contemplate our nuclear capability, it should give everybody the clear understanding that there is no power than can match us militarily," he said, speaking as he flew to his headquarters in Doha, Qatar, from Afghanistan. "The question is do you need to have a very, very large conventional land force to deal with the forseeable problems of the next 20 years? My answer is if the international community hangs together and there is not a bloc of nations for example that would come together in some way as to present a threat to the United States, we've got it about right."
As it pursues a long war against Muslim extremism, the United States should rely on local forces to fight insurgents, he said. "My view is that the way to win these wars, to win the insurgencies in both Afghanistan and Iraq, you need to build Afghan and Iraqi capacity, and in the long run the need for large numbers of American troops will come down," he said. "So the priority has to be helping countries help themselves. After all, who better can go against the cellular structures in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, wherever you may find them, but the people that live there," he said. |