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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Washington File

09 April 2003

Rumsfeld Hails a "Very Good Day" for the Iraqi People

(Defense Department Report, April 9: Iraq, Afghanistan Update) (790)
By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld welcomed a "very good
day" for the Iraqi people April 9, but cautioned that there is still
much to be done before the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein is
completely removed, the nation secured and a democratic,
representative government installed.
"Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler,
Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed, brutal dictators,
and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom," Rumsfeld said
at a Pentagon briefing.
"There is no question but that there are difficult and very dangerous
days ahead and that fighting will continue for some period," he said.
"But certainly anyone seeing the faces of liberated Iraqis -- freed
Iraqis -- has to say that this is a very good day."
Rumsfeld said coalition forces must capture, account for or otherwise
deal with Saddam Hussein, his two sons and the senior Iraqi
leadership.
"We must not and should not become overconfident," Air Force General
Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the
Pentagon briefing alongside Rumsfeld. The most senior civilian and
military leaders of the U.S. armed forces reflected on a day of
striking events as jubilant Iraqis in Baghdad overturned statues of
Saddam Hussein, often with the help of U.S. forces, and greeted
coalition forces in the streets of the capital city.
"The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American
tanks, tearing down the statutes of Saddam Hussein in the center of
Baghdad are breathtaking," Rumsfeld said. "Watching them, one cannot
help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the
Iron Curtain."
Rumsfeld pledged to those Iraqi people not yet free of the regime of
Saddam Hussein, "you will be free."
Rumsfeld said coalition forces still need to find seven known U.S.
prisoners of war, and Myers reminded the Iraqi Army -- in a direct
message -- that by the terms of the Geneva Conventions they must allow
delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit
the U.S. POWs as soon as possible.
In addition to recovering and accounting for the POWs, Rumsfeld said
the coalition must also secure the northern oil fields, find and
secure Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, capture or kill the
terrorists still operating in Iraq, locate Baath Party members and
their weapons and records, and begin the process of working with free
Iraqis.
"Much work remains, but this we can say with certainty: the tide is
turning, the regime has been dealt a serious blow, but coalition
forces will not stop until they have finished the job, the regime is
removed and ... all of the Iraqi people are liberated," he said.
Myers said U.S. Army Special Forces have seized a small town north of
Mosul and key positions south of Irbil, destroying tanks and trucks,
and taking several hundred enemy prisoners of war.
"Fighting inside the capital presents a substantial risk to coalition
forces, and we cannot and must not become overconfident," Myers said.
Rumsfeld said that since the defeat of the Iraqi regime in the south
of Iraq, humanitarian assistance has begun flowing into the country,
reversing the crisis created during the reign of the regime.
He cited Umm Qasr as an example, saying it has begun to flourish and
the local population has risen from 15,000 prewar to more than 40,000
now, due to the availability of supplies and employment.
"Water supply is above prewar levels -- [a] combination of U.K.
pipeline and trucking," he said. "Electricity has been restored by
U.K. engineers. Sufficient food is readily available. Medical
facilities are sufficient and operating."
He added that UNICEF has begun providing supplies, the port at Umm
Qasr is now clear of mines and open to limited shipping operations as
the channel is being dredged, and the railway station has been cleared
of explosives.
And Rumsfeld said he could cite other examples as well of the rapid
humanitarian response that is taking place in secured areas of the
nation.
Finally, Rumsfeld said Syria has continued to permit senior Iraqi
leadership to enter its country and has continued to send material
into Iraq. "We find it notably unhelpful," he said.
Myers added that in Afghanistan 11 Afghan civilians were killed in a
bombing April 8, after U.S. troops pursued enemy forces in the
vicinity of Shkin.
"Close air support was called in, and guided munitions accidentally
landed on a house, killing 11 Afghan civilians. We sincerely regret
the incident," Myers said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)



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