Wall Street Journal
WINNING THE WAR
Help Iraq to Help Itself
We're not there to stay. We are there to get the job done.
BY DONALD H. RUMSFELD
Monday, September 29, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
If you are like most Americans, the news you see on television and
read in the press from Iraq seems grim--stories of firefights, car
bombs, battles with terrorists. It is true that Coalition troops are
serving in difficult and dangerous circumstances. But what is also
true, and seems to be much less often reported, is that the
Coalition has--in less than five months--racked up a series of
achievements in both security and civil reconstruction that may be
without precedent.
I recently visited our forces in Tikrit, Mosul, Baghdad and Babylon.
Their spirits are good, because they know their mission is important
and they know they are making progress. Many recently got access to
satellite television from the U.S.--and their first glimpse of the
news coverage back home. Some expressed amazement at how few of
their accomplishments are reflected in the news on Iraq. As one
solider we met in Baghdad put it, "We rebuild a lot of
bridges and it's not news--but one bridge gets blown up and it's a
front-page story."
Their successes deserve to be told. Consider just a few of their
accomplishments:
. Today, in Iraq, virtually all major hospitals and universities
have been re-opened, and hundreds of secondary schools--until a few
months ago used as weapons caches--have been rebuilt and were ready
for the start of the fall
semester.
. 56,000 Iraqis have been armed and trained in just a few months,
and are contributing to the security and defense of their country.
Today, a new Iraqi Army is being trained and more than 40,000 Iraqi
police are conducting joint patrols with Coalition forces. By
contrast, it took 14 months to establish a police force in post-war
Germany--and 10 years to begin training a new German Army.
. As security improves, so does commerce: 5,000 small businesses
have opened since liberation on May 1. An independent Iraqi Central
Bank was established and a new currency announced in just two months-
-accomplishments that took three years in postwar Germany.
. The Iraqi Governing Council has been formed and has appointed a
cabinet of ministers--something that took 14 months in Germany.
. In major cities and most towns and villages, municipal councils
have been formed and are making decisions about local matters--
something that took eight months in Germany.
. The Coalition has completed 6,000 civil affairs projects--with
many more under way.
All this, and more, has taken place in less than five months. The
speed and breadth of what Ambassador Paul Bremer (and his
predecessor Gen. Jay Garner), Gen. John Abizaid and Gen. Rick
Sanchez, and the Coalition team, both military and civilian, have
accomplished is more than impressive--it may be without historical
parallel. Yet much of the world does not know about this progress,
because the focus remains on the security situation--which is
difficult, but improving. Baath remnants and foreign
terrorists are opposing the Coalition, to be sure. But the Coalition
is dealing with them.
This does not mean dangers don't exist. The road ahead will not be
smooth.There will be setbacks. Regime loyalists and foreign
terrorists are working against the Coalition. Increasingly they do
so by targeting Coalition successes. Yet the Iraqi people are
providing intelligence for our forces every day. Division commanders
consistently report an increase in the number of Iraqis coming
forward with actionable intelligence. With Iraqi help, the
Coalition has now captured or killed 43 of Iraq's 55 most wanted, as
well as thousands of other Baath loyalists and terrorists, and
seized large caches of weapons. As Iraqis see Coalition forces act,
their confidence grows--and
they are providing more information.
In Baghdad, a reporter asked why we don't just "flood the zone"--
double or treble the number of American troops in the country? We
could do that, butit would be a mistake.
First, as Gens. Abizaid and Sanchez have stated, they do not believe
they need more American troops--if they did, they would ask and they
would get them. The division commanders in Iraq have said that, far
from needing more forces, additional troops could complicate their
mission--because it would require more force protection, more combat
support, and create pressure to adopt a defensive posture (guarding
buildings, power lines, etc.), when their intention is to remain on
the offense against the terrorists and Baath
party remnants.
That is why, at the end of May, Gen. Jim Mattis, the Marine division
commander in the south central area, decided to send home 15,000 of
his 23,000 troops. As he recently explained: "If at any point I had
needed more troops, I could have asked for them. But I have not
needed them. The enemy over there, once we get the intelligence on
them, \[is\] remarkably easy to destroy. My way of thinking: If we
needed more people on our side, enlist more Iraqis."
That is precisely what Coalition forces are doing--training tens of
thousands of Iraqis to serve as police, border guards, a new
facilities protection service, a new Iraqi National Army, and an
Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Iraqis are eager to participate in their
own security. The commanders in Iraq report that they are exceeding
recruitment goals for these forces.
The Coalition is not in Iraq to stay. Our goal is to help Iraqis so
they can take responsibility for the governance and security of
their country, and foreign forces can leave. That is why the
president has asked for $20 billion to help the Iraqis get on a path
to self-government and self-reliance. He's requested $15 billion to
speed repairs to Iraq's dilapidated infrastructure so Iraq can begin
generating income through oil production and foreign investments.
And he's requested another $5 billion to help the Iraqis assume the
responsibility for the security of their own country. The goal is
not for the U.S. to rebuild Iraq. Rather, it is to help the Iraqis
get on a path where they can pay to rebuild their own country.The
money the president is requesting is a critical element in the
Coalition's exit strategy. Because the sooner we help Iraqis to
defend their own people the faster Coalition forces can leave and
they can get about the task of fashioning truly Iraqi solutions to
their future.
In Baghdad, I met with members of the Governing Council. One message
came through loud and clear: They are grateful for what Coalition
forces are doing for their country. But they do not want more
American troops--they want to take on more responsibility for
security and governance of the country. The goal is to help them do
so. Those advocating sending more Americans forces--against the
expressed wishes of both our military commanders and Iraq's interim
leaders--need to consider whether doing so would truly advance our
objective of transferring governing responsibility to the Iraqi
people.
Iraqis will have to overcome the physical and psychological effects
of living three decades under a Stalinist system. But the
ingredients for success are there. Iraq has oil, water and vast
wheat and barley fields. It has biblical sites, and great potential
for tourism. It has an educated, intelligent and industrious
population. We should resist the urge to do for the Iraqis what
would be better done by the Iraqis. We can help--but only if we
balance the size of our presence to meet the military challenge,
while putting increasing responsibility in Iraqi hands.
Mr. Rumsfeld is secretary of defense.
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