Where/when did Rumsfeld threaten force?
Read the transcript/excerpt from yesterday's Meet the Press. Again, where/when did he threaten force?
------------------------------
NBC Meet the Press:
MR. RUSSERT: Now, you have warned the Syrians several times, one, about shipping night goggles to the Iraqi forces. Did we find any night goggles in Iraq?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Oh, yes, we found night goggles in Iraq.
MR. RUSSERT: And you warned the Syrians about harboring members of Saddam's regime. Can you confirm that members of Saddam's regime fled to Syria?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Oh, there's no question but that they did. Absolutely.
MR. RUSSERT: Including...
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Some left and went to Syria and stayed, and some left Iraq, gone to Syria and transited to other countries.
MR. RUSSERT: Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax were reported to have fled to Syria. Do you have any information on that?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Nothing that I'm willing to discuss about individuals.
MR. RUSSERT: Also suggestions that Syria is harboring terrorists, Hamas, Hezbollah, others. Is that your view?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Oh, Syria has been on the terrorist list for years. They have worked with Iran and been a transit route for the Hezbollah down to Damascus, down to Beirut, which they still occupy-- Lebanon, Syria does--and then down towards Israel. That's been the route through the Bekaa Valley and--no, they've been very active sponsors of terrorism.
MR. RUSSERT: What happens if Syria doesn't change their behavior?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Oh, that's above my pay grade. Those are the kinds of things that countries and presidents decide. That's broad national policy. I'm a participant, but I'm certainly not a decider.
MR. RUSSERT: But could they be risking the future of their government?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Well, I guess to a certain extent you're known by your friends. And being on the terrorist list is not some place I'd want to be if I were a country or a leader of a country. I don't quite understand a country that foregoes the economic opportunity that comes from interaction with the world community and the opportunities for their people by creating an environment that's hospitable to enterprise and to economic intercourse. Why they want to live like that. Why they want to think that the only way to sustain their dictatorships is to repress people and to deny them the fruits of economic
interaction with the world. I think it's a shame. I don't know what motivates people except preservation of a regime. I mean, you look at dictatorships and basically, they get up in the morning and the single most important thing is not looking out for their
people, it's how do we preserve the regime. How do we continue our ability to control everything and repress everyone and control the press and deny freedom of religion and enlarge our prisons and force people, in the case of other countries, to live on subsistence food. I don't get it.
MR. RUSSERT: Is there a lesson for Syria as to what happened in Iraq?
SEC'Y RUMSFELD: Well, I think that we've got a lot of work left to do in Iraq. When you say "happened," it's still happening. We still have fighting to do. Our troops are still being killed and wounded and God bless them. They're doing such a wonderful job. We then have to make this transition through this period of some disorder to a period of order, and the opportunity for the Iraqi people to fashion their future. And it's not going to be the United States that's going to be fashioning their future. They're going to fashion their future. And they have an opportunity here to be liberated, be free and fashion an Iraqi solution to how they want to live their lives. And that's a wonderful thing.
AI
