Protect Troops Without Delay

The Senate Armed Services Committee had a lot of questions to ask this week about the attack that killed 19 American airmen in Saudi Arabia, and most of the answers the senators heard left them understandably dissatisfied.

Defense Secretary William Perry conceded that U.S. officials underestimated what terrorists might be able to do in Saudi Arabia and so were essentially unprepared for the enormous power of the truck bomb set off June 25 at the Dhahran housing complex. There was, he said, plenty of intelligence pointing to possible attacks against U.S. interests in the region. But because the reports were “fragmentary and inconclusive” it was hard to focus on specific protective measures. Not knowing where or when an attack might occur, however, doesn’t lessen the need to take all practical steps to prepare for attacks. The Pentagon spends about a quarter-trillion dollars a year. Surely some money could have been found to pay for Mylar protective coating on the windows of exposed U.S. facilities to reduce the deaths and injuries produced by flying glass.

Perry confirmed at the Senate hearing that U.S. officials will ask Saudi Arabia to allow the relocation of nearly all the 5,000 American forces in the country to more remote bases, where security against terrorist attacks can be tightened. That move ought to be not just requested but politely demanded. It’s obvious from both the Dhahran attack and last November’s bombing in Riyadh that U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia are at risk. Now, warns the State Department, American civilians may also be in danger. In the case of the military at least, much of that risk can be reduced by moving them out of urban areas.

Perry further suggested that investigation of the bombing now supports suspicions of “extensive support” from an “international terrorist organization.” The short list of suspects is presumably headed by Iraq and Iran, and Perry promised that once proof of outside involvement is nailed down retaliation would follow. Meanwhile, American forces and scores of U.S. facilities in and near the Arabian Peninsula are potential targets. Warning has been given. To delay any further in doing everything feasible to protect these sites is inexcusable.