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30 March 2006

Defense Secretary Says Iraqis Will Prevail Against Insurgency

Rumsfeld says new Iraqi government will be improvement over dictatorship

Washington – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the Iraqi people will form a new, unique government in the coming weeks -- one that will serve them better than the previous dictatorship.

The new Iraqi system of government will be different from democratic efforts elsewhere, the secretary said, “but it will be a whale of a lot better than the dictatorship that was there, and much less of a threat to anybody in the world.”

Rumsfeld told Minneapolis/St. Paul radio talk show host Jack Rice that the Iraqis face many daunting challenges, but eventually they will defeat the insurgency that has been most active in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces.  Iraq is not in chaos, he told the interviewer March 28.

The defense official said the Iraq war “is winnable” and drew parallels between some people’s impatience with how the war is going today and military milestones in American history:

• General George Washington, eventually the first U.S. president, nearly was fired during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1776) because of doubts about the war’s outcome;

• Many Americans did not believe that the Civil War (1861-1865) could be won; and

• There was considerable discouragement in the early days of World War II (1939-1945) when the allies lost many battles.

Prevailing in any conflict comes down to “a test of wills,” the secretary said, and a commitment to “steadfastness and perseverance.”  He said the American people do have the will to prevail in their support for Iraqis trying to change their lives.

To do otherwise, Rumsfeld said, would risk the dire prospect of turning Iraq over to terrorists for use as a safe haven.

In an era of instant communication via multiple media outlets, Rumsfeld said the truth about what is happening in Iraq will eventually filter through. 

“We have to have kind of confidence that ... free people, given sufficient information over time will find their way to the right decisions,” he said.

A transcript of the Rumsfeld remarks is available on the Defense Department’s We site. An audio file and a podcast of the interview are posted on WCCO News Talk’s Web site.

For additional information, see Iraq Update.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)