Defense Secretary William Perry offered an emotional mea culpa Wednesday for missteps by the Pentagon prior to the June terrorist bombing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
"I have to consider my own responsibility as secretary of defense," Perry told the House National Security Committee in a hearing on the June 25 attack that killed 19 U.S. airmen in Dhahran. "To the extent this tragedy resulted from a failure of leadership, I am responsible for that failure."Perry said he accepted the criticism in a task force report on the bombing that said top Pentagon leadership had failed to make counter-terrorism a high enough priority to protect soldiers in the field - particularly those deployed in the Mideast.
"We have not focused on force protection - that is my responsibility," Perry said.
He said he still stands behind his top military commanders, Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Binford Peay III, head of the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Gulf region.
"To whatever extent they are responsible for these mistakes, I am too," Perry said, "because I fully supported them."
Perry gave no indication that he might resign as a result of the bombing, focusing, rather, on the steps the Pentagon now plans to take to improve protection of soldiers in the field.
Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., the committee chairman, praised the Pentagon moves, but said terrorism should have been a top priority after the November 1995 bombing in Riyadh that killed five U.S. servicemen.
The report on the bombing, by retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing, concluded that U.S. forces are so far superior to potential foes that opponents have turned to terrorism as the only viable way of challenging them. Perry agreed with that conclusion.
"I think this is a watershed," Perry said. With the U.S. forces so strong, "terrorism becomes the weapon of choice and so we can expect to see an increase in terrorism, both the quantity and quality of terrorism."
Perry said his guidance to subordinates was to "overreach" if need be, rather than approach the terrorism problem incrementally.
A complete response, he said, will take years and cost billions of dollars. Simply moving U.S. forces from apartment complexes in Saudi cities to a remote air base cost the Pentagon $120 million.