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US-UK alliance in Iraq not behind London blasts: US
Donald Rumsfeld has termed as 'nonsense' claims that London blasts were in retaliation to UK's alliance with the US in Iraq.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has termed as "nonsense" claims that London blasts were in retaliation to Britain's alliance with the US in Iraq.
"They (critics) seem to cling to the discredited theory that the recent attacks in London and elsewhere, are really in retaliation for the war in Iraq or for the so-called occupation of Afghanistan. That is nonsense," he said in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Thursday.
"The United States and its allies did not provoke the terrorists; the terrorists attacked America," he said reminding about the September 11 strikes.
Rumsfeld said that on September 11, 2001, there were no US or coalition forces in Afghanistan or Iraq. There was no war in Iraq or Afghanistan when terrorists attacked US personnel at the Beirut barracks in 1983, the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia in 1996, US embassies in Africa in 1998, or aboard the USS Cole in a Yemeni port in 2000.
He said no one should make the mistake of thinking that acquiescing to terrorist demands by withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan would end the threat of future terrorist strikes.
"Terrorists do not seek a negotiated settlement with the West or with the moderate Muslim nations, and they're not appeased by concessions," he said.
The only way to defeat terrorism is to go after the terrorists where they are, and not wait to be attacked, he said. "And that's exactly what our global coalition has done, and what our troops are doing today in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere around the globe."
