Since I posted this somewhere else, I'll post it here also:
My our administration was silly. I think most of the people on SI, save for those who slavishly believed the PR of this administration, believed the cleanup on this war would take a good long time...
Iraq Resistance Lasting Longer Than Expected, Powell Concedes
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
Published: October 26, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 — Hours after what he called a "brazen" attack on a Baghdad hotel, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell conceded today that the Bush administration had not expected armed resistance in Iraq to continue as long as it has at so high a level.
But he denied that the administration, in its frequent emphasis on progress in Iraq, was trying to minimize the seriousness of problems there or to mislead the public.
"We did not expect it would be quite this intense this long," Mr. Powell said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." "We are still in a conflict, and I don't think the president ever sought to minimize that."
More than 100 United States troops have died in hostilities in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1, and attacks on coalition forces have roughly doubled in recent months, averaging 25 or more a day from Oct. 8 to 22.
"We are in this insurgency sort of situation where people strike and run and it is a much more difficult security environment," Mr. Powell said before adding: "I am confident in our ability to deal with it."
L. Paul Bremer, the chief administrator in Iraq, said separately that the United States-led coalition faced "a major terrorist problem in Iraq" but that the rocket attack today on the Rashid Hotel, in which an American colonel died and more than a dozen people were wounded, did not mean security was deteriorating.
Anti-coalition forces "are using now more sophisticated approaches," Mr. Bremer said on the ABC News program "This Week."
Increasingly, attacks have been conducted by small teams, often using improvised explosive devices.
Mr. Bremer said that several hundred of his employees stayed at the Rashid, that an investigation had been opened, and that security there would be tightened.
The two officials' comments came in a week of continuing violence against coalition forces, a week that brought the leak of an internal memo from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in which he warned that the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan could prove "a long, hard slog."
Mr. Powell and Mr. Bremer coupled nearly every expression of concern about conditions in Iraq with words of determination that United States-led forces, backed by growing numbers of Iraqi police and guards, would restore order to Iraq.
"The situation is still dangerous," Mr. Powell said on the CNN program "Late Edition," "but at the same time, there are very, very positive signs" that pacification is taking root.
"We can't minimize the danger," he said, "but at the same time, let's take account of the progress."
Mr. Bremer said Iraqi officials might be able to draft a new constitution and conduct democratic elections by the end of next year. "We're halfway" toward the formation of an Iraqi government, he said.
Mr. Powell was asked on CNN about some particularly pointed comments from a fellow Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, who told Newsweek that he was beginning to see parallels with the Vietnam War in the way, he said, the administration was painting a picture that diverged increasingly from reality.
"This isn't Vietnam," said Mr. Powell, who, like Senator McCain, fought in the war there.
"We do have a problem in the Sunni triangle," north and west of Baghdad, Mr. Powell said. "I don't know of any administration official who has said we don't have a problem."
"We're not minimizing anything," Mr. Powell said, adding that the administration also wanted to offer a "balanced picture."
"Most of the country is, in fact, orderly," Mr. Bremer said, with 90 percent of attacks occurring in the Sunni triangle, where a loose triad of Saddam Hussein loyalists, terrorists and freed criminals was particularly active.
But the problem in Iraq was aggravated by the presence of "several hundred hard-core terrorists" from Al Qaeda and an affiliated group, Ansar al-Islam, Mr. Bremer said on "Fox News Sunday." He criticized Iran and Syria for failing to stop infiltrations through their borders.
But cooperation from ordinary Iraqis was "absolutely" improving, notably since mid-July.
Asked about a suggestion that anti-American resentment was growing, among ordinary Iraqis, Mr. Bremer said, "Look, it can't be fun to be occupied.
"But the fact is, life is much better for the Iraqis today than it was six months ago and much better than it was a year ago. And they know that."
Mr. Bremer played down assertions from members of the Iraqi Governing Council that they opposed the stationing of Turkish peacekeeping troops in Iraq.
"They haven't voted it as a parliamentary fact," he said. Acknowledging the historically difficult relationship, Mr. Bremer said, "I think we need to have a dialogue together, and see if they can find some way to take everybody's sensitivities and interests into account."
Mr. Powell also dubbed the Iraq donors conference that ended Friday in Madrid as "very successful," and said the administration hoped that those countries that announced no donations there — notably France, Germany and Russia — would see cause to do so in the future. |
