U.S. to retain size of Asia forces
Associated Press
TOKYO — The top commander for U.S. forces in Asia said yesterday that U.S. forces in the region are not likely to suffer cutbacks, despite the Pentagon's possible plans to overhaul the military.
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"I see an increase in the emphasis on Asia as the region of both potential opportunity and potential threat," said Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the Honolulu-based U.S. Pacific Command.
Adm. Dennis Blair says North Korea remains a threat.
"I look at the fundamental force structure we have here to do our jobs and I think those are going to stay pretty constant," he told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he wants to change the military's current strategy, which involves preparing troops to fight two major regional wars at the same time.
Department of Defense officials have said the changes — the first since the end of the Cold War in 1991 — would require only having enough forces on hand to simultaneously win one regional war and defend against other smaller threats.
Rumsfeld told a Congressional committee last month that the two-war strategy was outdated and left the United States increasingly vulnerable to threats like ballistic missiles.
Among the biggest threats to stability in Asia is North Korea, said Blair, who is based in Hawai'i. He said the United States would continue to focus defenses in Asia toward repulsing a possible attack from the reclusive communist nation.
"The North Korean missile program poses a direct threat to both the citizens of South Korea and U.S. forces," said Blair. "North Korea has the capability to fit them with weapons of mass destruction warheads as well as with conventional warheads."
Blair also said the Bush administration would continue to try to reach a missile agreement with Pyongyang.
The United States considers North Korea a state sponsor of international terrorism — a label that allows it to maintain economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
Blair stressed that North Korea's missiles, which it test-fired in 1998, can reach Japan. He said he hopes Japan will collaborate with the United States in building a regional missile defense system.
Blair said Asia's regional stability also hinges on China, whose relations with Washington have been tense in the aftermath of a U.S. spy plane's collision with a Chinese fighter jet earlier this year.
The United States has nearly 100,000 troops in Asia, mostly concentrated in Japan and South Korea. Around 47,000 of those men and women are in Japan, which has served as a key U.S. military outpost since World War II.
