Rummy is on Iraq like white on rice. Glad to see it.
December 6, 2003
Rumsfeld Makes Unannounced Visit to Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to this northern Iraqi city Saturday to gauge the pace of progress toward stabilizing the country and defeating the insurgency.
It was Rumsfeld's second trip to Iraq in four months, reflecting the Bush administration's push for faster progress toward improving security and speeding the political transition to Iraqi control, as well as an effort by the Pentagon to boost U.S. troop morale. The trip also marked the first time Rumsfeld has visited Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields.
The trip was kept secret in advance to minimize the risk of attack on his entourage, which flew here on an Air Force C-17 cargo plane from Tblisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Rumsfeld began his day in Kirkuk by having breakfast with a group of soldiers who participated in recent raids in the area and with Air Force personnel who helped destroy captured Iraqi explosives.
Afterward, he received a detailed briefing on military operations in the area from Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which is responsible for security operations in much of the area north and west of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle, where anti-occupation violence has been the greatest.
With reporters looking on, Odierno said attacks have declined significantly in the last three weeks, averaging six per day compared with 21 daily before that.
At the same time, he said, acceptance of American troops by the Iraqi populace is increasing. ``It improves, every month it gets better,'' the general said.
In an interview, Odierno said that improved intelligence had enabled his soldiers to find and capture more of the people involved in the attacks against American forces in recent weeks.
``We've picked up some very key people,'' including Iraqis believed to be responsible for making homemade bombs and financing insurgency operations, Odierno said.
Rumsfeld later flew to Baghdad, where he was met at Baghdad International Airport by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of all coalition forces in Iraq.
Sanchez said in an interview with reporters traveling with Rumsfeld that U.S. intelligence has ``not established conclusively'' that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is personally directing he insurgency.
But Sanchez said it is believed that Saddam remains alive somewhere in Iraq.
Rumsfeld and Sanchez flew together in a Black Hawk helicopter to an outpost of the 82nd Airborne Division, where soldiers are training Iraqi recruits for a civil defense corps that Sanchez considers an important part of his strategy for giving Iraqis more responsibility for security in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country.
At the outpost, Rumsfeld told reporters he would like the training effort accelerated so Iraqis can eventually relieve the U.S. military of responsibility for their nation's security.
``We are working hard on it, and investing in it, we have wonderful people training them, and they are increasingly taking over responsibility for security in this country,'' he said.
After watching a demonstration of the 82nd Airborne's training of Iraqi civil defense recruits, Rumsfeld said he was impressed.
``They are volunteering in large numbers,'' he said. ``The work that they are engaged in is dangerous. There have been something in excess of 107 Iraqi security people who have been killed.''
Rumsfeld also was to meet with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, and with commanders and troops of the 1st Armored Division.
In earlier stops during his weeklong trip to Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Rumsfeld thanked countries that have contributed either humanitarian assistance or military forces to Iraq.
On Friday, he stopped in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and thanked the country's interim leaders for supporting the war on terrorism. He also met with a group of Georgian soldiers, some of whom he was told will be deployed to Iraq next year to serve in the multinational division commanded by Polish forces.
Rumsfeld went to Tblisi to assure the country's interim leaders that the United States supports Georgia's independence, and he called on Russia to withdraw troops as promised four years ago.
At a news conference with Georgia's acting president, Nino Burdzhanadze, Rumsfeld also cautioned that a ``credible election process'' leading to a scheduled Jan. 4 vote for president is ``critical to stability in Georgia.''
Burdzhanadze said the new leaders would maintain Georgia's push to become more integrated in the Euro-Atlantic alliance of which the United States is the driving force.
Rumsfeld got a firsthand look at Georgia's latest steps in that direction. He visited a mostly dilapidated former Soviet military base outside Tblisi where U.S. Marines are training Georgian soldiers in counterterrorism.
nytimes.com |
