97602. Central Command Chief Talks Anti-terrorism

By Linda D. Kozaryn

American Forces Press Service



	WASHINGTON -- "Street smarts." That's what Central Command's new

commander says U.S. troops need to counter terrorism.

	"I grew up on the streets of South Philadelphia," Marine Corps

Gen. Anthony C. Zinni said. "I survived. I knew around which corner or

down which alley I should not go. We have to create that kind of

street smarts in our people because in the end, that's more valuable

than all the walls, all the standoff distances and all the physical

aspects of security we can create."

	Speaking Aug. 21 at DoD's worldwide conference on anti-terrorism

in San Antonio, Texas, Zinni said awareness is key and military

leaders need to educate service members. "The most important part is

going to be what's between the ears of that service person, what they

see and realize, what they sense and report," he said.

	Zinni replaced Army Gen. H. Binford Peay in August as the

regional commander responsible for U.S. interests throughout the

Middle East and Africa. His area of responsibility includes 20

countries from Pakistan through the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea states to

the Horn of Africa. U.S. troops serve in 15 countries under Central

Command's watch.

	World attention turned to Saudi Arabia in November 1995 when five

Americans died in a terrorist bombing of a training center in Riyadh.

In June 1996, a massive terrorist bomb demolished the Khobar Towers

housing complex in Dhahran, killing 19 U.S. service members and

injuring hundreds of others. The attacks triggered a DoD-wide force

protection campaign.

	Zinni, a 30-year veteran Marine, is no stranger to force

protection or anti-terrorism. Following the 1983 Beirut barracks

bombing that killed more than 240 American military personnel, he was

put in charge of the new Special Operations and Terrorism

Counteraction Section at Marine Corps headquarters.

	"What struck me when I got into that job was how little prepared

we were for this," he recalled. "What struck me more was how much the

threat had very rapidly grown. We were faced with some tremendous

security challenges."

	Understanding the threat is crucial to countering terrorism,

Zinni said. While terrorists used a large truck bomb at Khobar Towers,

future attacks may involve chemical or biological weapons. Zinni said

terrorists may soon gain access to "bugs and gas" and other weapons

that could cause tremendous problems. Capabilities can change and so

can terrorist tactics, he said.

	In the past, terrorists were satisfied to take a great deal of

risk for a small return, Zinni said. "Now the terrorists in our region

seem to want the big target, the big attack. But what if they're

willing to take greater risks, commit greater forces and accept

greater casualties on their part to get fewer of us. We've seen that

happen in the past." Preventing this type of attack would be almost

impossible."

	In the aftermath of the Khobar Towers bombing, Zinni said,

Central Command spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving

security. But, he noted, resources are limited. "It's a zero-sum game.

It [force protection] comes at the expense of something else. If we

take the measures we have to take, it [resources] will come out of

some other capability. We have to be careful where we place these

resources, what we're doing to our other missions."

	Accomplishing the mission is the overarching goal, Zinni said.

Force protection is but a part of that mission. Whether they're

enforcing sanctions on Iraq or protecting U.S. allies and the flow of

oil in the Persian Gulf, military missions involve risk, he said. "We

are in a risky business. It's risky in training. It's risky when we're

preparing to deploy. It's risky when we are deployed. ... In my

position, virtually every day, we measure risk."

	Commanders today work with limited resources and in some cases an

overextended military, Zinni said. They have to weigh operational

tempo and the effect on people and equipment. As a result, they are

"pushing that operational risk -- that acceptable amount -- further

and further out," he said. "That's where [commanders in chief] lose

sleep and get more gray hairs. We live on beepers."

	Force protection must be balanced against operational needs,

Zinni said. "It would be easy to cancel a mission, to shut down an

operation, to build tremendous walls and fortress ourselves overseas

and not interact with the people we're there to help or to curtail a

very important operational function that protects our interest in a

region.

	"If we do that, then we will have conceded the battlefield to the

terrorist. The trick is to be able to accomplish your mission and

within as much reasonable risk as you can take still protect the

force. If you build the ideal fortress over there, you probably will

not be able to carry out the mission."

	Most of Central Command's 1,200 security assistance people, for

example, work in high-threat areas, Zinni said. They have to travel

and interact with local military and civilian officials. "All that

puts them at risk. We try to minimize that risk, but we can never

eliminate it."

	It's up to field commanders to take all reasonable measures to

protect their forces, Zinni said. He said the military must avoid

creating a "zero defects" mentality, using 20-20 hindsight to evaluate

commanders' decisions. "I want to be sure commanders who make

reasonably good judgments, who are still able to execute their

missions, have my backing and my support."

	Since force protection needs vary, Zinni said, he opposes

dictating prescribed standards. "I have no problem with submitting my

standards for approval or concurrence up the line, but you cannot have

one standard that's going to fit everybody," he said. "You cannot in

some places even afford the kinds of physical security measures that

would be [needed] worldwide.

	"I have served in Korea. I have served in the European Command.

I'm trying to imagine someone putting in a 1,200-foot standoff in a

place like Yongsan or at some kaserne in Heidelberg. You can't do it.

The host nation wouldn't let you do it. The expense would be too

great. We have to be reasonable about this. There will be risk."

	U.S. forces have been and are being targeted, he said. U.S.

officials have thwarted some attacks, he said. Commanders must include

this threat in their risk equation, Zinni said.

	"The fact that we have had no incidents in over a year is not

because there aren't people out there to get us -- or looking for the

opportunity -- it's because so far, thank God, we have done the right

things to be able to protect ourselves," he said. "More importantly,

we have done all those right things and never lost a beat in our

mission, in the demonstration of our resolve to our allies, and in the

commitment we have to our national interests."









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