US Air Power Could Not Destroy Iraqi Arms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American air power alone could not wipe out Iraq's secretive and deeply buried arms programs and any U.S. attack to do so would require ground troops, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told Congress on Thursday.

Rumsfeld and the nation's top military officer, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, also told the Senate Armed Services Committee they could not guarantee that Iraq would not use chemical or biological weapons against those troops.

"The Iraq problem cannot be solved by air strikes alone," said Rumsfeld in a second day of testimony to urge Congress to pass a resolution authorizing President Bush to use any means necessary to eradicate Iraq's arms programs.