Official Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Iraq

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a chief architect of the short-lived war here that has lapsed into guerrilla conflict, insisted Saturday that the U.S. military is committed to Iraq, and he spoke passionately about the need to bring members of Saddam Hussein’s regime to justice.

“We’re not playing any games with Saddam Hussein,” Wolfowitz said, bristling at the suggestion of an official from the southern city of Karbala that the U.S. isn’t doing everything it can to capture the former dictator. “The sooner we catch that bastard -- excuse me -- the better off everybody will be.”

Hours after Wolfowitz spoke, two U.S. soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division were killed in an ambush in northern Iraq, said Cpl. Todd Pruden. The two soldiers, members of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, died after their convoy was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire in Tallafar, west of Mosul. A third soldier was wounded.

Wolfowitz traveled under heavy security on his four-day visit to Iraq, with armed helicopters circling over his convoy.

Asked by Iraqi regional leaders about U.S. resolve to remain in Iraq until a government is elected and stability is restored, Wolfowitz said that neither an electoral loss by President Bush nor continued attacks on American troops would be likely to drive the U.S.-led occupying force from the country.

“I think the American people are committed to success here as long as they believe that you are committed to success,” Wolfowitz told regional leaders.

In a similar vein, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq issued a strongly upbeat assessment Saturday of the 100-day period since American troops seized the capital in April.

“By God, I guarantee you we’ve made tremendous progress,” Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters at Baghdad’s tightly guarded convention center. “We are way ahead of schedule.”

In the 24 hours before Sanchez spoke, two U.S. soldiers were killed in attacks by insurgents. That and the deaths today brought the number of U.S. deaths to 151 since the war began March 20, four more than died in combat during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Sanchez said he expected the attacks -- and American deaths -- to “continue for a while.”

Thirty-seven soldiers have died from hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1. On Friday afternoon, a soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Fallouja, west of the capital. Early Saturday morning, another soldier died after he was shot while guarding a bank in a Baghdad neighborhood.

The new chief of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, said last week that U.S. forces in Iraq are facing a “classic guerrilla-type war situation.”

Sanchez acknowledged the frustrations of many Iraqis caused by spotty electricity, lawlessness and the absence of basic public services. But he blamed many of the service problems on “decades of neglect” under Hussein’s regime.

“It is truly heartwarming and amazing how far we’ve come” since Baghdad fell to U.S. forces April 9, he said. Asked by reporters why his assessment was so positive in the face of a persistent guerrilla war and a restive population, Sanchez shot back: “Now look -- I spent a year in Kosovo in the aftermath of a war. We were nowhere near the level of progress that has been made in this entire country in 100 days.”

Sanchez cited what he said were successful military operations against insurgents; the hiring and training of Iraqi police, border guards and local security forces; repairs to infrastructure and the building of schools, clinics and soccer fields. He described a future Iraq in which the army is under civilian control and the government is democratically elected. He declined to predict how soon that would happen.

The lieutenant general said attacks against U.S. forces are being carried out by former Baath Party leaders, members of the fanatical militia known as the Saddam Fedayeen and “terrorists and criminals.” He said insurgents in the Fallouja area, a center of anti-American resistance, have been “exporting their terrorism” to other parts of Iraq.

“With the help of the Iraqi people, we should be able to isolate those elements and capture or kill them,” Sanchez said. Addressing Iraqi reporters, he added: “What I need is some human intelligence [from Iraqis] that will tell us where the bad people are so that we can get rid of them.”

Central to the American effort, Sanchez said, is capturing or killing Hussein and his two sons. “We are winning this war,” he said, adding that Hussein will never come back to power. He added later: “We’re focused. We will find, kill or capture him.”

In an opening statement, Sanchez said remaining soldiers of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division -- the unit that led the assault on Baghdad that ousted Hussein -- would begin returning home in September, a year after many division soldiers arrived in Kuwait to prepare for war.

The announcement seemed designed to quell growing disquiet among some division troops frustrated by several postponements of their scheduled return.

In TV interviews last week, some soldiers angrily criticized the Pentagon leadership. Although Army officials have said the soldiers could be punished, Sanchez said he was not aware of any disciplinary actions.

Sanchez’s comments came as occupation authorities launched a recruiting drive for a 40,000-member Iraqi army, which is to be formed within two to three years. Hundreds of Iraqi men lined up at recruiting centers in the capital and two other cities to fill out applications. The army is to be trained by a private American company assisted by U.S.-led soldiers.

The recruiting drive was aimed at enlisting enough recruits to begin training the first battalion of the new army by the first week of August, producing the first active unit eight weeks later.

British Brig. Gen. Jonathon Riley, deputy commander of the occupation forces’ Military Assistance Training Team, said the new army would be trained to defend the nation “rather than a particular leader or regime” and would be made up of soldiers from all of Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups.

Enlistment is open to men between the ages of 18 and 40. Excluded are members of the former regime’s security and intelligence services, Special Republican Guard, Baath Party security and militia groups, and senior Baath Party members. Former Iraqi soldiers from the rank of lieutenant colonel and below would be considered, Riley said.

Until a viable Iraqi government is set up, the new army would remain under the control of coalition commanders. Riley said. For the foreseeable future, he said, new units would be provided only with light weapons.

The Vinnell Corp., a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman based in Fairfax, Va., will conduct the training. The company would be assisted by teams of soldiers from the U.S., Britain, Australia and Spain, Riley said.

On his tour, Wolfowitz visited the site of a mass grave in Hillah, south of Baghdad, and used the occasion to denounce the former regime.

“This is just one of the 62 [mass grave sites] that we found so far -- 15,000 people in this place. This man and the people who did the killing for him were monsters,” Wolfowitz said. “For these people, obviously, liberation did not come in time.”

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Hendren reported from Hillah and Zucchino from Baghdad.