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Rumsfeld: violence likely in run-up to Iraqi election
The risk in Iraq is not of civil war but that the country will end up under the control of extremists who "run around chopping off people's heads," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in remarks broadcast on Saturday. Rumsfeld, in an interview with Fox News Channel, said he had not expected that the anti-U.S. resistance in Iraq would be as intense as it is and predicted the level of violence would remain high at least until the election scheduled for January. He said the United States would not necessarily wait until Iraq was "perfectly peaceful" before withdrawing its forces, but could do so once an Iraqi government had "developed the ability to manage their situation from a security standpoint."Asked about recent U.S. intelligence estimates warning of possible civil war in Iraq, Rumsfeld said: "No one sees any sign of civil war in that country at the present time ... The risk is that the terrorists, and the extremists, and the people who are running around chopping off people's heads and killing innocent men, women and children will take over that country. "Imagine a country ruled by people who go around chopping off people's heads. That's a dark future." Asked if had anticipated the insurgency would be as bad as it is, Rumsfeld replied: "No. Because no one has a perfect view into the future." He said that in the last month or two U.S.-led forces seeking to achieve more stability ahead of the election had "probably" killed 1,500 Iraqi insurgents and "a reasonable fraction of Zarqawi's senior people." Asked why U.S. forces had not been able to find Zarqawi, Rumsfeld said it was "like finding a needle in a haystack." "It's very hard to do. The United States military wasn't organized, trained and equipped to go out and do manhunts. That's an FBI job." Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-10-03 |
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