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07 September 2004

Rumsfeld says Civilized Nations Must Keep on Offensive

Defense Department report: terrorism, Iraq operations

The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq is reaching 1,000, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says, but groups opposing U.S. and Iraqi government forces have lost 1,500 to 2,500 in the past month.

Briefing at the Pentagon September 7 with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers, Rumsfeld said that "there are no free passes" in the war against terrorism, and for that reason civilized nations must stay on the offensive against terrorists. He made the remark in connection with the recent slaughter of hundreds of innocents, including children, by terrorists in Beslan, Russia.

The Russian people and the whole world once again saw vividly the extremes to which terrorists are prepared to go to achieve their ends, Rumsfeld said. But staying on the offensive also has its costs, he said, adding that the United States would soon be "likely to suffer the 1,000th casualty in Iraq." He also said U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces had probably killed from 1,500 to 2,500 terrorists and anti-regime fighters in the past month, which he said undoubtedly hurts their operations but is a small number in a country of 25 million people.

General Myers said the interim Iraqi government has a strategy for its cities: having U.S. forces equip and train Iraqi forces and train military leadership for military operations in those cities and then continue to be a presence after the operations. "[T]hat's what we're about," the general said.

Myers also said keeping U.S. forces out of "no-go" areas is part of the equation for Iraqis to take over security in the country. He said that by December a substantial number of Iraqi forces would be equipped, trained and led in order to go into those areas.

Asked whether he believed that the United States was still winning the peace in Iraq given a quickening tempo of attacks, Rumsfeld said it is understandable that the frequency of attacks would increase in both Afghanistan and Iraq as they move closer to free elections, because the former regime and terrorist elements see how close they are to losing their opportunity. Rather than phrase the question in terms of the United States winning the peace, he said, he would ask whether the Afghan and Iraqi people be successful in winning their countries back from the extremists and terrorists.

"I think in both cases, they'll be successful," he said.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)