*EPF505 09/12/2003
Rumsfeld Insists No Need to Increase U.S. Troops in Iraq
(Troop levels shouldn't rise to level of an occupying force, he says) (540)

By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Staff Security Affairs Writer

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there is no need to increase U.S. troop strength in Iraq or Afghanistan, and doing so would put the troops into the role of occupiers rather than temporary security forces.

In a September 11 transcript of a pre-recorded interview with the Public Broadcasting System's "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," Rumsfeld said the United States does not want to "own" either nation. "We don't want to own Afghanistan. We don't want to own Iraq. We want to help them get on their feet and then move out," he said, "We do not want to put so many forces in there that we create a dependency on us and then have to stay. We want to keep creating an environment where they can take over their security."

The defense secretary noted that the Soviet Union put 300,000 troops into Afghanistan but did not succeed in taking control of the country. In contrast, he said, the United States has deployed 130,000 soldiers to Iraq where they are "making steady progress." Why? Rumsfeld asked rhetorically. "Because we don't want to occupy a country," he said answering his question, "The Soviets wanted to own Afghanistan."

Rumsfeld also underlined the fact that the United States has "a lot of responsibilities around the world." And he noted the 55,000 Iraqi security officers and the 22,000 deployed international troops in Iraq, all of whom are coping with some 10 to a dozen security incidents daily, which he said are lasting only around "two or three minutes." In that context, he asked, what would 300,000 troops do?

The U.S. goal is not to increase the total number of U.S. forces, he explained, "The goal is to provide security, and the best way to do that is to keep creating the Iraqi capability to provide for their own security."

At the same time, Rumsfeld said it is important to have "a broader international base" there. "It's good for Iraq," he added.

Already, there are more nations that will have a stake in Iraq's future success, he said, pointing to the Polish-led division that includes troops from 17 countries, with another four providing support.

The United States is trying to get other nations to provide troops, the secretary said, adding, "we believe we have a chance of getting maybe another division" to augment the two international divisions, that led by Poland and another by the United Kingdom. "If we could add one more, that's just that much less pressure on us. If we can add more Iraqis, that's still less pressure on us," he said.

Rumsfeld also said it is the unanimous opinion of commanders on the ground in Iraq that current force levels are adequate. "If the commander said, 'Look, the situation militarily is such that we need more forces' and they recommended that, and we believed that that's a good thing to do, the president would put them in in a minute. But that is not the case," he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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