Tom Ridge Says "War On Terror" Will Last For Decades

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Former Homeland chief Ridge says terror war will last decades

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centr...printstory.jsp

Associated Press
6/22/2006

PITTSBURGH - Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said the war on terror is likely to last for generations, much like the Cold war.

"For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday during a panel discussion in Pittsburgh that marked the opening of a new RAND Corp. office in the city.

"I don't know if anyone in the 1950s thought the Cold War would last close to half a century, but it did," Ridge said. "The challenge is global and it may take a generation or two or more to reduce."

Ridge was in his second term as Pennsylvania's governor when he was picked by President Bush to be the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Federal, state and local authorities share more intelligence since the attacks, but they will have to continue to improve to if they are to prevent future terror attacks, Ridge said.

"We looked at security through three prisms, certainly security," Ridge said of his tenure as Homeland Security chief. "But you can't ignore the economic (impact) and you can't ignore the Constitution and he rule of law."

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These two sites have a slightly different version of this AP release:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Terrorism/wireStory?id=2106860


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT


Jun 22, 11:20 AM EDT

Ridge: Terror War Likely to Last Decades

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, speaking at the opening of a new RAND Corp. office, said the war on terror is likely to last for decades, much like the Cold War.

"For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

"I don't know if anyone in the 1950s thought the Cold War would last close to half a century, but it did," Ridge said. "The challenge is global and it may take a generation or two or more to reduce."

Federal, state and local authorities now share more intelligence that they did before the attacks, but they will have to continue to improve to if they are to prevent future terrorism, Ridge said.

RAND Corp., a research and analysis institution focused on policy and problem solving, emerged during the Cold War with a defense-related agenda and remains involved in a range of national security issues.

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