30 October 2003
Terrorists Are Attacking Iraqi Successes, Rumsfeld Says
Coalition will not be deterred, defense secretary avers
Saying that terrorists in Iraq are attacking the coalition's successes and are killing "an increasingly large number of Iraqis," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the United States will stay in Iraq "as long as necessary" to ensure that the country is secure.
Briefing journalists at the Pentagon October 30, Rumsfeld said the difficult security situation "makes the progress being made all the more remarkable. Not only has the coalition managed to outpace the progress in postwar Germany, Japan, Bosnia or Kosovo; they have done it under fire, while fighting a dangerous, low-intensity conflict ... while fighting criminals as well as regime remnants and terrorists who are aggressively seeking to stop their progress."
Asked about his views of the violent attacks and bombings over the past several days, Rumsfeld answered, "[I]t's always heartbreaking when you see fine young people, men and women, in our services, coalition forces, the Iraqi security forces, and innocent Iraqis being killed. ... I think it's hard to put it in perspective while it's still going on. ... It may be an isolated spike. It may have to do with Ramadan. It may have to do with an increase that will continue in incidents -- that's possible. And none of us can predict the future."
Asked whether the United States contemplated "changing the mix" of coalition and Iraqi forces in response to the recent car bombings, Rumsfeld said, "the mix is changing. ... The number of Iraqis providing for the security of the Iraqi people is soaring -- up to plus-or-minus 100,000 at the present time, and climbing." Meanwhile, U.S. forces are down by nearly 20,000 from their peak levels, he said.
Questioned about shifting the coalition's counter-insurgency plan in the wake of the recent attacks, Rumsfeld said General Abizaid and others are working with coalition and Iraqi forces to improve Iraq's counterterrorism capabilities. He said the coalition is pushing to get Iraqi army, police, site protection forces, border patrol and civil defense forces trained and deployed as quickly as possible. Asked how this is being done, he replied, "You add money -- you add money. ... You increase the number of Iraqis who are helping you doing the recruiting. You increase the number of countries who assist you with the training. And you adjust your techniques as to where you put your emphasis" among the Iraqi defense units.
A journalist asked whether any resources within the Iraq Survey Group, which has been looking for evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) munitions and programs under the direction of David Kay, would be diverted from WMD to counterterrorism operations. Rumsfeld said the group has always been tasked with duties beyond searching for WMD, including searching for missing prisoners of war, and counterterrorism.
"On the one hand, the task of finding WMD is important," Rumsfeld said, "it is a big interest in the world, understandably. It is also true that we're having people killed by terrorists, so counterterrorism is important as well. We're not being killed by WMD at the moment."
On Afghanistan, Rumsfeld was asked whether the U.S. administration now thinks that warlordism will always be a factor in that country. "I think it's appropriate to take into account the history ... when you're dealing with that country," Rumsfeld replied. "The Loya Jirga, as I recall, produced a document which argued that they wanted a central government and they wanted ... a national army. And that over some period of time, the capabilities of those regional militias or armies, in some cases, would presumably be incorporated in various ways into other security forces that are national. ... In the last analysis ... it's going to be the Afghan people" who will decide the issue, he said.
(Distributed by 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=October&x=20031030182832ynnedd0.9864618&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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