WASHINGTON?The Pentagon expects to call up more reservists than the 50,000 originally believed needed for the war on terrorism, officials said Wednesday. Most will be reporting for homefront duty.
The increase reflects heightened concern about potential terrorist attacks on federal installations as well as an expanding war effort in Afghanistan, where U.S. planes bombed military targets for a 25th day.
Reviewing progress in the bombing campaign, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem told a Pentagon news conference that attacks have so severely damaged the Taliban’s military communications system that commanders in the field are having trouble summoning new supplies and troop reinforcements.
“We believe that puts a terrific amount of stress on their military capability,” he said.
Victoria Clarke, spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said he had notified the White House that the reserve call-up would exceed 50,000, but she offered no new projected total.
“We’re not benchmarking it,” she said.
Under the authorization signed by President Bush three days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon could activate as many as 1 million reservists. Clarke said she did not expect the total would approach that figure. During the 1991 Gulf War more than 260,000 reservists were called up.
Clarke said Rumsfeld would fly to Central Asia to consult with governments supporting the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. She would not identify his destinations except to say he would also visit Moscow for talks with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on arms control and anti-terror matters.
In early October, Rumsfeld visited U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf as well as Egypt and Uzbekistan, where he worked out an arrangement for the use of an Uzbek air base by American troops. The bombing campaign began Oct. 7, one day after Rumsfeld returned from that trip.
Stufflebeem said the current focus of U.S. bombing includes bunkers and caves thought to be used by the Taliban and fighters of the al Qaeda terrorist network, as well as Taliban troops aligned against opposition forces near the northern crossroads city of Mazar-e-Sharif and just north of Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Stufflebeem showed before and-after photos of a site bombed by U.S. warplanes in recent weeks near Kandahar, the southern stronghold of the Taliban. He described the site as a major al Qaeda training camp financed by Osama bin Laden, the terrorist suspect being harbored by the Taliban. The photos showed what appeared to be extensive bomb damage.
In explaining why more U.S. reservists are expected to be called to active duty, Pentagon officials said they continue to receive new requests for security forces at federal installations.
Gen. William Kernan, commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, told reporters he has considered “the full array of air defense systems” to protect some sites.
“Most recently some of the things we looked at are some of the nuclear power plants, some of the other critical infrastructure that supports the national and state governments,” he said without elaborating.
Four states already have put Army National Guard units on security duty at nuclear plants. They are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Air Force has called up more reservists than the other services?19,643 members of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. They include 5,900 Air National Guard members called up Tuesday.