June 4, 2001

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- President Bush plans for now to stick with the Clinton
administration's policy of regularly patrolling the skies over northern and southern Iraq to
contain Saddam Hussein's forces, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says.

Rumsfeld was meeting Monday with senior Turkish government officials to discuss Iraq and
other issues. Later he was visiting U.S. air crews at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey.
They fly regular missions over northern Iraq to enforce a "no-fly" zone meant to stop Iraq
from attacking Kurdish rebels.

Some, including U.S. military commanders, have questioned whether the air patrols are
worth the risk of having a U.S. or British pilot captured by Iraqi forces. No planes have been
lost in the 10 years since the no-fly zone enforcement began in the aftermath of the Persian
Gulf War, but Iraqi air defenses regularly fire on allied planes with surface-to-air missiles
and anti-aircraft artillery.

Rumsfeld said the administration is still studying the matter of enforcing the no-fly zones.

"We don't have any proposals to alter that at the present time," Rumsfeld said in an interview
with reporters traveling with him Sunday from Washington to the Turkish capital.

Turkey was the first stop for Rumsfeld on a weeklong European tour that is his most
extensive overseas trip since taking office. In February he spent one day at a European
security conference in Germany.

For the most part, he has been closeted in the Pentagon reviewing U.S. military commitments
and practices with an eye to speeding modernization of the armed forces and making the
Defense Department more efficient.

In the interview Sunday, Rumsfeld said the administration is not considering reducing the
100,000-strong American force in Europe but is reviewing the way troops there and
elsewhere abroad are arrayed.

He said some have gained the mistaken impression that he might recommend to Bush that
the United States pay more attention to security issues in the Asia-Pacific region at the
expense of its deep involvement in Europe.

"Yes, Asia is growing and it is an important part of the world," Rumsfeld said. "Any
suggestion that the United States is going to, or ought to, or might, turn away from Europe is
fundamentally flawed in logic."

A chief focus for U.S. troops in Europe in recent years has been peacekeeping in Bosnia and
Kosovo. On Tuesday, Rumsfeld is scheduled to visit with the Kosovo peacekeepers and their
support troops in neighboring Macedonia.

Rumsfeld, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, dismissed speculation that he favored
withdrawing some forces from Europe.

"There has been no discussion about any troop adjustments, and it would be wrong to inject
that into the discussion and cause tremors unnecessarily and inaccurately," he said.

"We are, of course, looking at how forces are arranged," not only in Europe but elsewhere in
the world. "What might come out of it, I don't know."

The administration is considering whether the traditional mix and location of U.S. forces in
Europe -- mostly ground troops stationed in Germany -- might be changed to better match
the most likely military challenges in that region, aides to Rumsfeld said. They added that
these may be only slight adjustments.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com