US defence secretary under fire

Washington: The conduct of the Iraq war fuelled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe and created more enemies for the United States, a retired US Army general who served in the conflict said on Monday.

The views of retired Army Major General John Batiste buttressed an assessment by US intelligence agencies, which concluded that the war had inspired Islamist extremists and made the militant movement more dangerous.

The Iraq conflict, which began in March 2003, made "America arguably less safe now than it was on September 11, 2001", Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, told a hearing on the war called by US Senate Democrats.

National Intelligence Director

John Negroponte acknowledged that the jihad in Iraq is shaping a new generation of terrorist operatives, but rejected characterisations stemming

from a leaked intelligence estimate that the United States is at a greater risk of attack than it was in September 2001.

Rather, he said, the high-level assessment from top US analysts doesn't "really talk about" an increased threat inside the US border. "We are certainly more vigilant. We are better prepared," Negroponte said. "We are safer. The threat to the homeland itself has if anything been reduced since 9/11."

Washington: Retired US military officers on Monday bluntly accused Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of bungling the war in Iraq, saying American troops were sent to fight without the best equipment and that critical facts were hidden from the public.

"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell Americans the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Major General John R.S. Batiste told a forum conducted by Senate Democrats.

A second military leader, retired Major General Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically". "Mr Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," Eaton added at the forum, held six weeks before the November 7 midterm elections, in which the war is a central issue.

Republican Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Armed Services Committee, dismissed the Democratic-sponsored event as "an election-year smoke screen aimed at obscuring the Democrats' dismal record on national security".

"Today's stunt may rile up the liberal base, but it won't kill a single terrorist or prevent a single attack," Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said in a statement. He called Rumsfeld an "excellent secretary of defence".