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Rumsfeld: Iraqis Must Take Over Security
EFL BAGHDAD (AP) - American officials want to speed up training for Iraqi security forces, including former members of Saddam Husseinâs military and intelligence services, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday. Making Iraq safe is a job for Iraqis, and no more U.S. troops are needed in the country, Rumsfeld said after meeting in the capital with top military and civilian officials of the American-led occupation. "Security is a problem, but itâs a problem that, ultimately, the Iraqi people will deal with, with the help of coalition forces," Rumsfeld said at an impromptu news conference. Thus laying the groundwork for what we do after Jacques votes ânonâ. Rumsfeld arrived in Baghdad on Thursday afternoon for his second visit to Iraq in four months. He said coalition forces had completed more than 6,000 humanitarian projects since then. "It is getting better every day. I can see a change since I was here," Rumsfeld said. "That is not to say it is not dangerous. It is. But it seems to me that the trajectory weâre on is a good one." Despite problems in restoring and repairing Iraqâs electrical system, Baghdad at night glows with light, Rumsfeld said after returning on a Black Hawk helicopter from one downtown compound to an American base near the cityâs airport. "For a city thatâs not supposed to have power, thereâs lights all over the place. Itâs like Chicago," Rumsfeld said. And parts of Baghdad are safer than the Woodlawn and West Austin neighborhoods in Chicago. Moments after he arrived in searing desert heat on a C-17 transport plane, Rumsfeld shook hands and posed for pictures with grinning Air Force service members on the tarmac. He then stepped over a traffic barrier and visited wounded soldiers in an air-conditioned hospital tent nearby. The daily attacks on U.S. soldiers as well as a series of car bombings that has killed more than 100 have prompted some in Congress to call for more American troops to be sent to Iraq. Rumsfeld said the top generals in Iraq do not want more than the 140,000 U.S. troops now in the country. "Mostly what we want is more Iraqi forces," Rumsfeld said. "We want more force protection, more infrastructure protection, more police, more border guards, and that should be done by Iraqis." The defense secretary said the U.S. military is "looking at ways of accelerating" the process of bringing former members of Saddamâs military - and possibly his security services - into the Iraqi security forces. Iraqi enlisted soldiers and junior officers from lieutenant colonel on down could be eligible to join the new Iraqi army, Rumsfeld said. All will be carefully screened to weed out those with anti-American leanings, he said. Between 50,000 and 60,000 Iraqis are doing security work now, more than half of them working as police officers, Rumsfeld said. Hadnât seen those numbers before. U.S. officials still do not have a good idea whether Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters or other forces are behind the bombings, defense officials said Thursday. The military is unsatisfied with the amount and quality of information they have about anti-American forces in Iraq, particularly about foreign fighters, Rumsfeld said. "Theyâre not comfortable at the moment with what they donât know," Rumsfeld said. "Oh well, weâll just have to kill them when we find them." Posted by: Steve White 2003-09-05 |
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