Friday, June 24, 2005
Gen. John P. Abizaid
June 24, 2005
U.S. General Sees No Ebb in Fight
By DAVID S. CLOUD and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, June 23 - The top American commander for the Middle East said Thursday that the insurgency in Iraq had not diminished, seeming to contradict statements by Vice President Dick Cheney in recent days that the insurgents were in their "last throes."
Though he declined during his Congressional testimony to comment directly on Mr. Cheney's statements, the commander, Gen. John P. Abizaid, said that more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq and that the insurgency's "overall strength is about the same" as it was six months ago. "There's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency," he added.
His more pessimistic assessment, made during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, reflected a difference of emphasis between military officers, who battle the intractable insurgency every day, and civilian officials intent on accentuating what they say is unacknowledged progress in Iraq.
Mr. Cheney, in an interview with CNN after General Abizaid spoke, repeated his assertion that the insurgency was facing defeat, which he said was driving it to increase attacks to disrupt the United States-backed political process aimed at defusing the violence.
"If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period," he said in the interview. "The terrorists understand if we're successful at accomplishing our objective, standing up a democracy in Iraq, that that's a huge defeat for them. They'll do everything they can to stop it."
Persuading the public that the American-led effort in Iraq is succeeding is a White House priority this month. President Bush will meet Friday with the Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, at the White House, and on Tuesday, he will give a speech on the first anniversary of the end of the American occupation.
Dr. Jaafari, speaking at the Council of Foreign Relations here, supported the White House argument that the situation in Iraq was steadily improving, despite continuing attacks. He also warned against setting a timetable for troop withdrawal. When he was asked Thursday evening about Mr. Cheney's recent comments, he sidestepped the issue.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his top commanders appeared at all-day hearings, starting with the Senate Armed Services Committee in the morning and continuing with the House Armed Services Committee in the afternoon.
"Any who say that we've lost this war, or that we're losing this war, are wrong - we are not," Mr. Rumsfeld said in the morning session.
He added that consideration of troop reductions in Iraq, as some Democrats have called for, would "throw a lifeline to terrorists, who in recent months have suffered significant losses and casualties, been denied havens and suffered weakened popular support."
General Abizaid had just returned from a visit to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, where he said he was surprised at how many American commanders and soldiers asked whether the military was losing support at home for their missions overseas. "It was a real concern," he said.
He added that Afghan and Iraqi military officers had raised the same concern. "They worry we don't have the staying power to see the mission through," he said.
Several lawmakers warned that public support for the American troop presence in Iraq would continue to decline, which could eventually force a withdrawal of the troops, unless progress could be made at stemming the violence.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, told Mr. Rumsfeld at the Senate Committee hearing: "We will lose this war if we leave too soon, and what is likely to make us leave too soon? The public going south. That is happening, and it worries me greatly."
No senator called for an American withdrawal, but several Democrats urged the administration to consider setting a timetable for troop reductions if Iraqi officials fail to approve a constitution by a self-imposed August deadline, which could be extended for six months. The constitution is scheduled to be voted on in October, and if it is approved, a national election would be held in December.
"An open-ended commitment to the Iraqis that we will be there even if they fail to agree on a constitution would lessen the chances that the Iraqis will make the political compromises necessary to defeat the jihadists and end the insurgency," said Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan.
Dr. Jaafari urged the United States on Thursday night not to set a timetable for a troop withdrawal, saying insurgents would seize on the action to "spread terror across the nation to weaken the country."
He said the only viable military strategy was to wait until Iraqi troops are "trained to a very high level," a process he insisted was already well under way.
His reluctance to set deadlines appeared synchronized with the position taken by Mr. Bush, who has declined to set a goal for withdrawal.
Yet despite his care not to differ with the White House, Dr. Jaafari appeared at one point to side with General Abizaid, who told Congress that foreign fighters were still entering Iraq. Mr. Jaafari agreed that Iraq's borders were still not secure and that terrorists continued to flow into Iraq. He made no effort to quantify how many have entered the country, or how important they have been in the insurgency.
In the afternoon session, Representative Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat, repeatedly pressed Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq, on whether the insurgency was in its final throes, as Mr. Cheney said, or was essentially holding its own, as another top American officer, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, stated this week.
Pressed repeatedly to choose between the two, General Casey said: "There's a long way to go here. Things in Iraq are hard."
But General Casey insisted that the allied forces had significantly weakened the insurgency even though the number of attacks against American forces has remaining steady at about 60 a day for the last several weeks.
The most heated exchange of the day occurred between Mr. Rumsfeld and Senator Edward M. Kennedy. After a six-minute recitation of what he said were Mr. Rumsfeld's mistakes and misjudgments, the senator, a Massachusetts Democrat, accused him of putting "our forces and our national security in danger" and called for Mr. Rumsfeld to resign, as he has several times previously.
"Well, that is quite a statement," Mr. Rumsfeld responded, saying Mr. Bush has rebuffed his offers to resign twice.
David E. Sanger contributed reporting for this article.
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