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Rumsfeld: U.S. faces its 'most dangerous' eraNo estimate on cost of possible war with Iraq
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is facing its greatest peril in history, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told senators Thursday as he testified in support of a $380 billion Pentagon budget. The money is needed to combat "what may be the most dangerous security environment the world has known," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Bush administration has asked for a 4.2 percent increase in military spending in 2004, from $365 billion to $380 billion. But that figure does not include the cost of a possible war with Iraq, which is likely to exceed the $60 billion cost of the first Gulf War, or of the war on terrorism. Rumsfeld, appearing on Capitol Hill for the second consecutive day, said the cost of a war with Iraq is so far "not knowable." He said the United States will need to remain in Iraq after a possible conflict "as long as necessary" to rebuild the country, "but not one day longer." But he added, "It would cost a heck of a lot less than (what) 9-11 cost, and 9-11 would cost a lot less than a chemical or biological 9-11." The Bush administration has argued that Iraq has maintained stocks of chemical and biological weapons in violation of U.N. resolutions and might one day give those weapons to terrorists to use against the United States and its allies for an attack similar to those al Qaeda carried out against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. In addition, Rumsfeld said, North Korea is "not only a danger to northeast Asia but to the world," because of its nuclear weapons and missile programs and its record in selling missile technology to other countries. "They sell almost anything," he said. "They're the world's greatest proliferator of weapons technology." Rumsfeld said he has "no doubt" that North Korean missiles can reach portions of the United States. Pyongyang is believed to have one or two nuclear weapons and could produce the nuclear material for at least six more in a short time. The Bush administration has relied on multilateral diplomatic efforts among North Korea's neighbors China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, where nearly 40,000 U.S. troops are based, to resolve the impasse over North Korea's nuclear program. Powell testifiesSecretary of State Colin Powell, also appearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, told a House panel that the administration remains "deeply concerned" about North Korea. "There still is a possibility of a diplomatic solution, even the North Koreans have said that," Powell told the House Budget Committee, which is considering the Department of State's proposed $28.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2004. "And we know that if they keep moving down the track they have been moving down, and start up the reactor and then go to reprocessing, then we are facing a new and more difficult situation." The Defense Department's budget proposal includes about $150 billion in military research and development, $40 billion to boost units' readiness and more than $24 billion to restructure the armed forces -- a goal Rumsfeld has pressed since taking office in 2001. "We're fighting the first wars of the 21st Century with a department that was really fashioned to meet the challenges of the mid-20th Century," Rumsfeld said. But the bill for those wars will be sent separately. The Defense Department will ask Congress "reasonably soon" to pay for those efforts in a separate, supplemental appropriations bill, he said.
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