Former National Security Adviser: Post-War Challenges Ahead

At a Monday keynote at the RSA Conference here, Berger addressed the situation in Iraq and the state of national security after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Berger said he was proud of steps taken in the 1990s to develop the military that created a "digital battlefield" in which intelligence and fighting forces were "integrated like never before." But with the collapse of the regime and the war ending, the United States now must focus on stabilizing Iraq.

"The challenge here is truly daunting," Berger said, citing the need to control civil strife, provide food and water, help administer a civil government, secure oil fields and deal with war criminals.

"Cutting and running here is not really an option," he said.

Adding to the challenge is the anti-American sentiment that runs deep among Muslim people, for whom the war "was not a war about liberation and freedom but about domination and occupation," he said. He added that the United States may need to cede some control and do "some burden sharing" in the rebuilding of Iraq in order to promote long-term acceptance of a new Iraqi government.

While the war didn't provoke acts of terrorism against the United States, the country "cannot be lulled into some false sense of security," Berger said.

"We are not returning to a terror-free United States," he said.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the country has lost its sense of invulnerability and has begun switching from a threat- or warning-based security model to a vulnerability-based approach, he said. "We're not there yet in terms of public policy," he added.

The country's defensive posture depends heavily on technology, Berger said. "The enterprise all of you are engaged in is so extraordinarily important to the security of the country," he told the crowd of IT security professionals.