Attacks Needn’t End Before Pullout, Rumsfeld Says

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon that insurgent attacks in Iraq could continue long into the future, and that a cessation of violence should not be a condition for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

“Success for the coalition should not be defined as domestic tranquillity in Iraq,” Rumsfeld said, appearing with Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. “Other democracies have had to contend with terrorism and insurgencies for a number of years, but they’ve been able to function and eventually succeed.”

In London, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari said Monday that two years would be “more than enough” to establish security.

After talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jafari said that success would depend on building up Iraq’s security forces, controlling its porous borders and pushing ahead with the political process.

Asked about Jafari’s comment about a two-year recovery, Rumsfeld said: “There are so many variables that I would be reluctant to pretend that I could look into that crystal ball and say X number of months or X number of years. I can’t.”

Casey said that his staff had recently completed a semiannual assessment of the military situation in Iraq, concluding that the U.S. strategy is on track to accomplish its goals.

Both Casey and Rumsfeld denied that U.S. officials in Iraq were in active negotiations with insurgent leaders to broker an end to the violence. Casey said that the meetings were with influential Sunni Muslim leaders to bring more Sunnis into the political process.

Casey did not rule out direct talks in the future with leaders of Iraqi factions of the insurgency, excluding foreign fighters.

“We may start moving there,” Casey said. “But the first thing we want to do is meet with Sunni leaders, and a lot of these folks claim they have leverage over the insurgents that we’ve yet to see realized, frankly.”

Rumsfeld warned that declining support for the war could embolden insurgents to press their offensive, giving them hope for a U.S. troop pullout soon.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll reported Monday that a majority of Americans for the first time said the Bush administration had “intentionally misled the public” in making the case for war in Iraq and that three-quarters said it had underestimated the military challenge.

But 58% of those polled said U.S. forces should stay in Iraq until civil order is restored, compared with 41% who said they should withdraw.

The poll was conducted June 23-26 among 1,004 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, according to data released by ABC.