24 August 2003
Coalition Shifting Resources to Fight Terrorism Threat in Iraq
Gen. Myers, Administrator Bremer's remarks August. 24
By Howard Cincotta
Washington File Special Correspondent
The United States and its coalition partners are shifting tactics and resources to meet the emerging and complicated threat of terrorism in Iraq, senior U.S. officials said in a series of television news appearances on August 24.
L. Paul Bremer, administrator of the civilian Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the struggle against terrorism in Iraq is one shared by Americans, Iraqis, and the entire international community, as the recent bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad demonstrated.
"As the Secretary General of the U.N. said on Wednesday, the world cannot be intimidated," Bremer said on Fox News Sunday. "I was very touched and proud to see that all of the U.N. agencies here in Baghdad were open for business yesterday, Saturday, only four days after this attack. It's an admirable demonstration that if the terrorists thought by this kind of an attack they were going to intimidate the United Nations and the international community, they got it dead wrong."
Bremer said that the terrorist threat in Iraq is a complex one and has three distinct elements. One consists of foreign groups -- particularly Ansar al-Islam, which has al Qaeda ties -- that have infiltrated the country. The second element consists of what Bremer called "bitter enders" of the old regime, who are responsible for most of the attacks against coalition forces and are confined to a small area of the country. The third component is the sabotage of infrastructure such as electric power and oil pipelines by ex-regime members, according to Bremer.
"And in the case of all three of these, what we are doing is trying to engage more Iraqis in the fight," Bremer said on Fox News Sunday. "We have now almost 60,000 Iraqis in the police force and the border police, in the new Iraqi army, in the Iraqi civil defense force, all of them working together."
General Myers also commented on the international character of the security effort in Iraq, noting that the bulk of the resistance is confined to a relatively small area of the country.
"We have over 40 countries involved in this, and another 14 that look like they are going to probably put troops into Iraq. So this is an international effort," Myers said on NBC's Meet the Press. "I went to the heart of where 80 percent or more of the incidents occurred north of Baghdad between Baghdad and Tikrit. The soldiers on the ground there are supremely competent in their ability to deal with the threat."
Myers added, "In fact, the soldiers I talked to said, "Listen, we know we are having an effect on this country, because tens upon tens of people come out and tell us when we're on patrol, 'Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for being here.' That story is not going to get on the front page, but it is in fact what goes on in a majority of places in Iraq."
Both Myers and Bremer denied that the U.S. lacks sufficient troops in Iraq to accomplish its mission of establishing security, self-government, and economic reconstruction.
"It's not a question of more troops," Bremer said on Fox News Sunday. "It's a question of being effective with our intelligence, getting more Iraqis to help us. There are more than 50,000 Iraqis now working with us on security matters in the police and the border guards and the civil defense corps, and in the new Iraqi army. So Iraqis are more and more assuming responsibility for their security here."
On Meet the Press, General Myers said, "You have to take into account that we have over 50,000 Iraqis now that have been trained over time, 50,000 that are armed and working with us to bring security and stability to that country. That number will continue to grow, and dramatically, between now and the next month and the month after."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=August&x=20030824201450attocnich0.2625543&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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