By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
November 04, 2003

(CNSNews.com) - The Bush administration got an assist from former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger Tuesday, when Weinberger told a Fox News interviewer, "We have to just keep on doing what we're doing" in Iraq.

Weinberger, who served under President Ronald Reagan, called the post-war occupation a long, difficult and unpleasant task - but the problems are not unexpected, he said. "People who say we didn't plan for it properly simply don't understand the problems involved in occupying a country such as Iraq."

"Occupation duty is very tough," Weinberger said, adding that the American people have forgotten that the United States also had problems in the Axis countries after World War II.

"It's very disagreeable to have your country occupied, and there [is] going to be a lot of resistance and we simply have to hunt it down and destroy it day by day, and that is what we're trying to do...

"It's certainly not anything that could have been changed by better planning. That's a cry of people who never wanted to go in in the first place," Weinberger said.

Weinberger said human intelligence-gathering is the key to stabilizing Iraq and defeating the Saddam loyalists who are attacking U.S. troops.

"You need to have spies who can penetrate these organizations and let you know what they're planning to do and when they're planning to do it, and where, and so on, and when we know that, we can make a great deal greater progress against this war on terrorism."