NEWS TRANSCRIPT from the United States Department of Defense
DoD News Briefing
Victoria Clarke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
January 30, 2002 - 8:00 a.m. EST

(Interview with Mr. Slen, C-SPAN Washington Journal)


Slen: Torie Clarke, over at the Pentagon, what is the price tag on whatever it takes?

CLARKE : Well, the price tag for the defense budget for 2003 will be $48 billion. As the president said, the war on terrorism is very broad, it's global, it's about far more than just Afghanistan and going after Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, for instance. So we have to make sure we make the right investments in our people, and we have to make sure we make the right investments in the kind of people and kind of organization that we need to get the job done.

CLARKE : It's actually more than asking for things. It's more about taking a hard look at the context of the world in which we find ourselves. We find ourselves facing a wide array of asymmetrical threats. So, once you understand that context, then you have to look at organizing yourself differently. You have to look at equipping yourself differently.

You have to look at different ways of training your people and putting those together so you have the best, most mobile, flexible and lethal way to go after the challenges and threats to the American people.