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Iraq's Government, Military Developing Very Well, General Says

05 March 2006

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Pace also assesses situation in Afghanistan

By Melody Merin
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Iraq's government and security forces are developing very well, General Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in talk show appearances on NBC’s Meet the Press with Tim Russert and Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace March 5.

"I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at, whether it be on the political side where they've had three elections, they've written their own constitution, they're forming their government.  You look at the military side where this time last year there were just a handful of battalions in the field, Iraqi battalions in the field.  Now there are over 100 battalions in the field.  They had no brigades.  That's about 3,000 men each.  Now they've got about 31 brigades.  No matter where you look at their military, their police, their society, things are much better this year than they were last," he said on Meet the Press.

When asked if the recent bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra could trigger a civil war in Iraq, Pace said that he believed the Iraqi people have shown since that incident that "they do not want a civil war."

"They are not attacking each other's mosques," he said.  "The Iraqi people want to have calm, and they’re working hard together, especially amongst their leaders, both political and religious, to maintain that calm."  (See related article.)

Pace stressed that Iraq's fledgling government faces significant challenges.  "You have many, many different groups that need to be represented in a fair, representative government," he said on Fox News Sunday.  "They’re working hard at it.  Democracy is not clean, not easy, but they’re working real hard."

"[T]hat government, when it does form, will have the support of a much improved and improving military," he added.

Pace expressed concern about the various militia groups currently operating outside of the Iraqi government’s control, but he said on Meet the Press that they are "not a major long-term problem as long as the Iraqi armed forces and Iraqi police continue to be loyal to the central government, as they have been."

"The Iraqi government is working very hard to vet all of those individuals who join their police forces, join their armed forces," he noted.  "Once we have the Iraqi government functioning the way it should be, I think you'll see that the vast majority of those who, in the past, had been willing to participate in insurgent-like activity, will no longer do so."

Pace said he is confident Iraq will soon have "a government that provides services to the people that are needed, that provides job opportunities."

"[A]nd in those job opportunities and in that future that is hopeful and optimistic, you will have the young men not following the insurgents, not being fearful of insurgents, but living more normal lives," he said.

For more information on Iraq, see Iraq Update.

AFGHANISTAN

Pace also discussed the situation in Afghanistan.

When asked on Meet the Press about that country’s economic reliance on opium, an illegal crop, Pace said the U.S. and British governments are working with Afghan President Karzai's government to encourage the cultivation of alternative crops and provide alternative employment.

Pace also addressed U.S. troop deployments in that country, telling Fox News Sunday that U.S. forces are currently at 23,000, with units "coming and going."  He noted that NATO forces are coming into the area and more countries are increasingly getting involved.

"The weight of the NATO, the weight of the free world is more and more on the side of President Karzai and his government," Pace said on Meet the Press.  "And the terrorists are understandably afraid of that outcome."

For more information on Afghanistan, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)