'War on terror will continue for years'

The war on terror will continue long after Iraq and Afghanistan are stable, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told military officials from around the world today.

Speaking at the Global Terrorism and International Co-operation Symposium in Ankara, Turkey, Pace called for patience and collaboration, repeating US assertions that it will be a long campaign.

“Iraq and Afghanistan will over time become stable,” he said in a keynote address. “But the war on terror will continue long after Iraq and Afghanistan have had success in standing up their own governments.”

Pace also told the crowd that military action alone will not be enough. Economic growth, good education systems and solid governments also are necessary to quell terrorism.

“We are talking about years and years to come of vigilance,” said Pace. “Today’s tactical victory does not guarantee tomorrow’s strategic success.”

Pace was speaking on the second, final day of the conference. Yesterday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for stronger international cooperation against terrorism.

Earlier in an interview with NTV, a Turkish all-news television station, Pace fielded questions about the US military’s progress in Iraq, and when troops will be withdrawn. He repeated the Pentagon’s assertion that any withdrawal will be based on conditions in Iraq.

He also said the US military was not taking any steps to invade Iran, saying, “there is a lot more to be done before we consider military action”.

Asked whether the US will do more to help Turkey fight the PKK, a terrorist organisation that has long been a problem there, particularly along the border with Iraq, Pace said the government in Iraq must be stabilised before anything could be done.

Guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have recently escalated their attacks in the region. A bomb set off by a suspected Kurdish suicide bomber earlier this month killed two people and injured 19 in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated south-east.

PKK terrorists also operate within Iraq’s borders, and he said the US and other countries were working to help Turkey, but he would not go into details.

“Any attacks against the PKK in Iraq are going to have to wait until the security situation in Iraq is more stable,” Pace said.

Pace said the US and other countries must do a better job of sharing intelligence to be more effective in the campaign against terror.

“They are certainly trying to come to grips with how much intelligence they can share,” Pace said. “Each country has its own way of collecting data and they need to protect how they do that. But the data they collect can be very important to other countries.”

Pace said the two-day session would let officials trade information about how individual countries are dealing with terrorism. That should give others ideas on what works and what doesn’t, he said.

Pace said Saudi Arabia had been successful lately tracking down an al Qaida cell. Countries are trying to figure out how much intelligence can be shared, and how quickly, he said.

The Saudis, he said, have probably used “some techniques and procedures that will be helpful to other countries”.

He noted that much of the discussions on intelligence sharing, among a host of high-raking officials from countries around the region, will be done in small groups and not publicly shared.