Rumsfeld said the same in February

This past Sunday, June 26, was not the first time that Secretary Rumsfeld let on that America would not defeat the insurgency. On the Larry King program this past February, Rumsfeld said this:

As President Bush noted in his State of the Union address, the coalition is entering a new phase in Iraq. The coalition will continue to work with Iraqis to battle the insurgency. But it will increasingly shift its efforts to assisting the training of Iraqis to defend their country, rather than Iraqis assisting the coalition. The coalition will help build the “rib cage” of junior officers, noncommissioned officers, and other leaders needed to hasten the goal we share: A self-reliant Iraq, capable of defending itself with its own security forces. Ultimately, the coalition will not be the ones that will defeat the extremists. It will be the Iraqi people that will do so. [Emphasis added.] Iraq belongs to them and they have the ultimate responsibility for restoring stability to their country. And when conditions, not arbitrary timelines, permit, our coalition will reduce its presence in Iraq.

On one hand, this seems an entirely reasonable statement that the Iraqis must make their own country work. On the other, it is consistent with what I have previously said. We are edging toward the exits, without having done the job that we’ve been claiming for the last two years we were on the verge of accomplishing. And if we don’t accomplish it, if the best the U.S. armed forces can do is to “manage” the insurgency rather than defeat it, does anyone believe that the new Iraqi army will do any better?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 30, 2005 09:33 AM | Send