In Surprise Visit to Baghdad, Rumsfeld Prods Iraqi Leaders
By ERIC SCHMITT
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 27 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged Iraqi political leaders today to settle their differences and agree on a new constitution quickly, and to exert more influence with Syria and Iran to force them to end support for the insurgency here.
Speaking to reporters en route to an unannounced visit here, Mr. Rumsfeld laid out a remarkably blunt prescription for what Iraqi leaders must do in the coming weeks and months to ensure that a stable, secure and popularly elected government survives, and to allow American troops to begin to withdraw.
Mr. Rumsfeld declined to say when conditions would permit that drawdown to start. But the top American commander here, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., reaffirmed to reporters his statement in March that the Pentagon will be able to make "some fairly substantial reductions" in troops by next spring if the political process remains on track and Iraqi forces assume more responsibility for securing their country.
After meeting with Mr. Rumsfeld, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said there was no firm timetable for any American withdrawal, but he noted that Iraqis "desire speed in that regard." He said that as Iraqi forces improved, they would replace American troops around the country.
Security was just one of one of the broad themes that Mr. Rumsfeld outlined first to reporters traveling with him and then to Mr. Jaafari and other top Iraqi officials, said a senior Pentagon aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting with the Iraqis was private.
First and foremost, Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters, was the need to stick to a political timetable that calls for Iraqi officials to write a constitution by Aug. 15. "We don't want any delays," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "They're simply going to have to make the compromises necessary and get on with it." He added, "That's what politics is about."
Any delay in the process would be "very harmful to the momentum that's necessary," he said. "We have troops on the ground. People get killed."
Mr. Rumsfeld renewed his criticism that Syria and Iran are harboring financiers and organizers of the insurgency, or are failing to clamp down on fighters infiltrating into Iraq from their territory. But he also urged Iraqi leaders to be more aggressive to stop what he called "harmful" behavior by Iraq's two neighboring rivals.
"They need to demonstrate that they're a big country, they're a wealthy country, that they'll be around a long time, and they don't really like it," said Mr. Rumsfeld, adding that he would leave specific actions up to the Iraqis.
Mr. Rumsfeld also called on the Iraqi government to assume greater responsibility over time for the 15,000 detainees now in American custody in Iraq; to allocate enough money in future Iraqi budgets to field security forces that are capable of replacing many of the 22,000 foreign allied forces that plan to leave Iraq by year's end; and to improve cooperation between the Iraqi defense and interior ministries to enhance the combat readiness of Iraq's 170,000 military and paramilitary police forces.
Taken together, Mr. Rumsfeld's remarks amount to perhaps the broadest attempt to date by a senior Bush administration official to prod Iraq's fractious mix of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political leaders to move forward on several political, economic and security fronts.
His comments also underscore the administration's urgency in hewing to a political process that American officials say is essential to defeat the increasingly sophisticated and resilient insurgency, and to establish an Iraqi government with public support. That schedule calls for Iraqis to approve a new constitution by October and to elect a new government by December.
It was unclear how Mr. Jaafari responded to each of Mr. Rumsfeld's half dozen themes. At a brief news conference with Mr. Rumsfeld, the prime minister described the discussion about the security forces and detainee operations, but did not mention - and was not asked about - progress in drafting the constitution.
Earlier in the day aboard a C-17 cargo plane that flew from Tajikistan, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked whether his comments, which he ticked off from prepared notes, suggested that the administration's efforts in Iraq were coming down to the home stretch. "Oh, I wouldn't say that," he said. "I just have an obligation to look ahead."
As is his policy in public, Mr. Rumsfeld refused to say when Iraq will be safe enough to allow American troops to withdraw. He said drawing down troops hinged on the size and strength of the insurgency, cooperation from Syria and Iran, the ability of the Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi public support in their new government.
Mr. Rumsfeld spent today in a whirlwind, nine-hour visit here that included a "town hall" meeting with American troops in Balad, north of Baghdad, a luncheon strategy session with top American commanders, briefings with Iraqi political leaders, and a demonstration by an Iraqi counter-terrorism unit.
It was Mr. Rumsfeld's 10th trip to Iraq since Saddam Hussein's government's fell in April 2003 to the American invasion, and his third so far this year.
Joining Mr. Rumsfeld and the new United States ambassador here, Zalmay Khalilzad, at a brief news conference, General Casey painted an upbeat picture of steadily improving Iraqi security forces pitted against an insurgency that the general said was neither weakening nor gaining strength.
"I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a stalemate," said General Casey. "Insurgencies need to progress to survive, and this insurgency is not progressing. There's been a change in tactics, to more violent, more visible attacks against civilians. That's a no-win strategy for the insurgents."
Mr. Rumsfeld gave his most detailed remarks aboard his plane en route to Iraq.
He said the United States is now overseeing 15,000 detainees, a number that has climbed sharply in recent months as more insurgents are captured in operations but a smaller percentage are released because they are considered higher risk.
American forces currently run detention centers at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, Camp Bucca near Basra, and Camp Cropper, a site for high-value detainees including Mr. Hussein, near Baghdad International Airport. But the prison population is growing so quickly that the United States will soon open a fourth major prison in northern Iraq. The prison operations are requiring increasing numbers of American military police and prison guards, who are being diverted from other jobs in Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld called on Iraq to provide more trainees "so that as soon as it is feasible, we can transfer the responsibility for Iraqi prisoners to the Iraqi government."
In another indicator that Mr. Rumsfeld is looking to an evolving relationship with Iraq in the future, he said that American lawyers continue to work with their Iraqi counterparts on legal agreements covering American forces in Iraq once a new government presumably takes control in January 2006.
Mr. Rumsfeld also said Iraq should "find opportunities" to thank allied countries for their contributions over the past several months. He said many countries would be paring down their forces in Iraq after the elections, withdrawing them altogether or converting them to trainers under a NATO training mission in Iraq.
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