Terrorism: April 3, 2002

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The Administration has asked Congress for another $27 billion for the War on Terror, half of it for the Pentagon and the rest for other security measures. The Administration has warned Congress that it needs the money before late April as certain kinds of munitions and maintenance supplies are being expended faster than they are being purchased, and to run out would have "devastating effects" on the War and on stateside training. Some analysts had thought the War in Afghanistan was winding down, but Operation Anaconda is said to be only the first of five or six such attacks on al Qaeda and Taliban base complexes now being identified by intelligence and reconnaissance. Allied nations have been promised tens of millions for use of their bases, facilities, and hardware, and these bills are coming due. Pakistan, for example, is due $60 million, all of it payable by late April. The Pentagon complains that it was never allowed to buy enough of the "un-sexy" recon and intel aircraft for wartime mission rates, only enough to handle peacetime duties. These planes are now being flown round-the-clock and some missions are being ignored or pushed off onto allies as there is no US aircraft to fly them. The always-scarce transport and refueling aircraft are so totally involved in the War that none are available to support peacetime training. European Command is complaining that for the first time since World War II, it will not have a Marine Amphibious Ready Group in its theater as all of the floating Marine battalions have been sent to the Arabian Sea.--Stephen V Cole

 

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