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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Monday, October 15 2001 11:31 PM SGT
White House brushes aside Megawati criticism
WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (AFP) - The White House on Monday brushed aside Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's criticism of military strikes on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, saying the best defense against terrorists is "a strong offense."
President George W. Bush "has made clear that the United States is going to take steps to defend itself and the best defense is a strong offense," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in response to a question about Megawati's comments.
"Our country has been attacked and the United States will take all the appropriate steps to defend itself," said the spokesman. "That message has been received well by our allies."
A day after the Indonesian leader for the first time directly criticized the US-led strikes, Fleischer also denied that global support for US reprisals for September 11 terror strikes on Washington and New York was eroding.
"The United States will continue to work with our coalition allies, the United States will continue to prosecute the military campaign to achieve our objectives," he added.
Under pressure from legislators, mainstream Muslim groups and her own vice president Hamzah Haz, Megawati late Sunday directly criticized the US attacks for the first time.
"Violence should not always be responded to with violence," she said in a speech at a mosque.
"Terrorism deserves punishment," Megawati said, in apparent reference to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But, she added, "No individual, group or government has the right to try to catch terrorist perpetrators by attacking the territory of another country."
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