02 November 2003
Iraqi People Will Prevail Over Terrorists, Rumsfeld Declares
Coalition will neither abandon Iraq nor stay longer than necessary
By Howard Cincotta
Washington File Special Correspondent
With U.S. and coalition support, the Iraqi people will ultimately prevail over terrorists and Baathist loyalists to establish a secure, independent, and free nation, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in a series of television news appearances on November 2.
"It will not be the United States and the coalition countries," Rumsfeld said on ABC's This Week. "We're going to have Iraqi people take over their own sovereignty. The Iraqi people are going to take over their own security. And they are going to be the ones, with our help."
U.S. and coalition forces will not abandon Iraq, Rumsfeld declared, despite the tragic losses in the downing of a U.S. helicopter November 2. But neither will U.S. troops remain any longer than necessary to ensure Iraq's security and freedom, he said.
"I think foreign forces in any country are unnatural and I would think no country would prefer to have foreign forces in their country for long periods," Rumsfeld said in press comments following his appearance on Fox News Sunday. "The president said we'll stay as long we're needed and not one day longer."
"At the same time, he said, "we've got a job to do, we're not going to abandon the Iraqi people, we're going to help build up their forces and their capability and we're going to win."
More than 100,000 Iraqi security forces have already been deployed, Rumsfeld pointed out, with plans to double that number in the coming year.
Moreover, it is the Iraqi people who have borne the heaviest losses from attacks by regime loyalists and terrorists, according to Rumsfeld. "They're against international humanitarian organizations like the U.N. They're against the Iraqi people, the Iraqi police academy," he said on Fox News Sunday. These terrorists are "trying to target successes," he said on Meet the Press.
The rapid increase in Iraqi police and security forces makes the need for additional U.S. and coalition soldiers much less likely, Rumsfeld noted on NBC's Meet the Press, and, in fact, the number of coalition troops in Iraq is already on the decrease.
The exact number of U.S. forces remaining in Iraq by next year will depend "entirely on what happens in the security situation on the ground," he added.
In Iraq and elsewhere, it is vital to remain on the offensive and take the battle to the terrorists, Rumsfeld stressed in several of his appearances. On NBC's Meet the Press, he said: "If you know there are terrorists, and you know there's terrorist states -- Iraq has been a terrorist state for decades -- and you know there are countries harboring terrorists, we believe ... you simply have to take the battle to them."
The United States also recognizes, however, that military operations alone are not enough to prevail against the global threat of terrorism, Rumsfeld commented. "We need to find ways to make sure we're winning the battle of ideas, he said on NBC's Meet the Press, "and that we reduce the number of terrorists that are being created in the world that are being taught to go out and murder and kill innocent men, women and children."
Rumsfeld said that "it's not going to be so much the United States as it is people from other countries who see their religion hijacked and taken away from them" who must take action if the world is to prevail against terrorism.
(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=November&x=20031102221207attocnich0.4932062&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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