26 October 2006
Rumsfeld Reaffirms Goal of Helping Iraqis Govern Themselves
Defense secretary says coalition not taking sides between Shiites, Sunnis
Washington -- The United States is not taking sides in Iraq’s sectarian fighting, but coalition forces must continue to protect the Iraqi people as their government works to create a multiethnic, multisectarian democracy that opposes extremism, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said October 26.
“Our challenge, and it’s tough, is to get the Iraqi people capable of governing and providing security for their country,” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.
President Bush on October 25 said that although the United States is adapting its military tactics in Iraq, its objective remains unchanged: a democratic Iraq capable of defending and governing its people while becoming a regional ally in the War on Terror. (See related article.)
“Americans have no intention of taking sides in a sectarian struggle or standing in the crossfire between rival factions,“ Bush said at a White House press conference. “Our mission is to help the elected government in Iraq defeat common enemies, to bring peace and stability to Iraq, and make our nation more secure.”
At his October 26 news conference, Rumsfeld also emphasized that the United States and its allies are using flexible tactics in Iraq. “The idea that U.S. military leaders are rigidly refusing to make adjustments in their approaches is flat wrong,” he said.
Rumsfeld said approximately 310,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained and equipped by international coalition forces. He also discussed the complex challenge of supporting the Iraqi government while also trying not to takes sides in the deadly struggle between Sunni and Shi’ia groups within Iraq.
“The enemy [of the Iraqi government] is different in different parts of the country,” Rumsfeld said. “There's more than one enemy. … There's sectarian violence. And there are also people that would be characterized as al-Qaida or insurgents trying to take over that country, extremists, who are trying to foment sectarian violence … [to] get a civil war going between the Shia and the Sunnis.”
Iraq’s violence covers a wide spectrum of motives, and U.S. and international troops are in the country “to support the Iraqi government,” Rumsfeld said. “[C]learly, sectarian violence can have the effect that the people who are fomenting it want, and that is to cause the government to fail. And our goal is to help the government from failing.”
Rumsfeld reminded reporters that “those who are fighting against the Iraqi government want to seize power so that they can establish a new sanctuary and a base of operations for terrorists -- not one in the remote mountains of Central Asia, but in the heart of the Middle East with access to the world's energy supplies.”
In an October 24 news conference in Baghdad, Iraq, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Multi-National Force – Iraq Commander General George W. Casey told reporters that success in Iraq remains within reach and can be achieved by helping the Iraqi government define and meet a series of significant military and political targets and benchmarks over the next 12 months to 18 months. (See related article.)
In his Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld said it would be wrong to characterize those targets as unchangeable deadlines.
“You're looking for some sort of a guillotine to come flowing down if some date isn't met,” Rumsfeld said, in response to a reporter. “That is not what this is about.”
However, he added, it is healthy for democracies to discuss targets and goals in public.
“There's an advantage in having it public because it's a declaration of your priorities and what you think you would like to accomplish,” he said. “The risk of it is that someone will say: ‘Oh my goodness … they missed it by a day or two or a week or something else.’”
On October 24, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Peter Pace said the Iraqi people and their government have demonstrated that, despite widespread violence and instability, they remain motivated to create a multiethnic democracy.
"I think they have enormous incentive," Pace said in a separate Pentagon news conference.
“They want to stand on their own,” Pace said, adding: “If you were to go into Iraq anyplace today and ask an Iraqi citizen, Do you want your government to stand on its own two feet? [They would answer] ‘Yes.’ Do you want coalition forces to leave? ‘Yes.’ Do you want coalition forces to leave tomorrow? ‘No,’ because they know that they still need some assistance in getting … to where they want to be.”
A transcript of Pace’s October 24 news conference is available on the Defense Department’s Web site.
For more information, see Iraq Update.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
