Ken Bacon
Ken Bacon
everybody security vacuum
Everybody agrees that we don't want a security vacuum in Kosovo.
drive ready
It was not ready to go because typically when you drive around you don't have the thing ready to fire.
duty frequently mind minute
It's something that's on their mind every minute of the day when they're on duty and frequently when they're off duty as well.
believes everybody force larger required small
Everybody now believes that that force is probably too small and that a larger force will be required to go in as a peacekeeping force.
billion century clinton defense dominant hard help increases life light pay president problems quality recruiting required secretary sharp strong worked year
It's required sharp increases in pay and benefits, and I think those have been appropriate, particularly in light of the recruiting problems that we were having a year ago, and the quality of life problems that have been eliminated. And I think that we've worked -- that Secretary (William) Cohen and President Clinton have worked very hard to increase defense investment, as I said, by 40 percent, from $43 billion to $60 billion a year ... That, also, has been justified, and will help us be as strong and dominant in the 21st century as we are now.
emergency initial operations quickly self situation sort team
It's a sort of a self-contained, quickly movable team that can go in to an emergency situation abroad, set up a communications, set up an operations center, do some of the initial investigative work.
cable car determine marines open operators ski thorough tragedy
It's a tragedy for everyone, particularly the families, the ski area, the cable car operators and the Marines as well, ... set out to determine culpability in a fair, open and thorough way.
air continue defense focus military targets variety
It will be another substantive strike. It will be severe. We will continue to focus on a variety of targets, but principally on air defense targets and also on military targets in and around Kosovo.
It will be another substantive strike. It will be severe.
attack easier
It will be much easier to attack them.
air airmen arabia available base force moving possibly prince process taking therefore
The Air Force is in the process of taking down all its tents at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia because the airmen are moving into dormitories, and therefore these tents could possibly be available for use in Albania or Macedonia.
consider couple hundred soldiers taking
Taking out a couple hundred soldiers here and a couple hundred soldiers there is not what we consider a withdrawal. We consider that to be theater.
flow force mobility plan supplies
It is part of a plan to make force mobility more difficult, to interdict the flow of supplies and of forces.
eliminate mission performing reduce steps stop worldwide
We have a worldwide mission to perform, and we are not going to stop performing that mission. We can never eliminate the risk, but we can take steps to reduce the risk.