Rumsfeld spells out principles for Iraq

The US intends to maintain a tight grip in Baghdad to “fill the vacuum of authority” while helping Iraq to create its own version of democracy, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.

“We are committed to helping the Iraqi people get on the path to a free society,” Mr Rumsfeld said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“The Iraqi people have this historic opportunity to build a free society, and the world as well as the United States has a stake in their success.”

To that end, he said, the UN, other countries, international institutions and non-government organisations were welcome to participate in the restoration of Iraq following the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Thirty-nine countries have offered their help, he said, and “we work closely with them to maintain a focus of efforts”.

Mr Rumsfeld cited no recovery timetable but listed a set of “broad principles” that he said the Bush administration considers “critical, if Iraq’s transition from tyranny is to succeed”.

He said those envision a “single country” that does not support terrorism, threaten its neighbours or repress its own diverse population and that provides market-based economic opportunity and maintains an independent judiciary.

“These are not solely American principles nor are they exclusively Western. We do not have an American template that we plan to impose on them. The Iraqis will have to figure out how to build a free nation in a manner that reflects their unique culture and tradition.”

The allied coalition will “seek out those Iraqis who support those principles” and are interested in carrying them out and will reject those who do not, Mr Rumsfeld said.

Some US officials have expressed concern that Shiite extremists in neighbouring Iran would try to stir unrest amid Iraq’s own Shiite majority, in a campaign to install a Tehran-like theocracy in Baghdad.

In remarks clearly aimed at Iran, Mr Rumsfeld said the allies would not permit some “new form of tyranny” to replace Saddam’s.

“Iran should be on notice that attempts to remake Iraq in Iran’s image will be aggressively put down,” he said.

In reply to a question, the Pentagon chief said the US administration was debating the most effective way to deal with Iran itself – through the hard-liners in charge, through the moderate leaders they tolerate or directly with the Iranian people.

He conceded that the rebuilding of Iraq would not be swift or easy.

He said that as Saddam’s regime disintegrated, it freed 100,000 criminals, most of whom are still at large. “There are folks out there who do not wish the coalition well,” he said.

Top priorities for Iraq are establishing security, restoring utilities and other services and neutralising die-hard Baathist party members and sympathisers.

The administration’s game plan calls for Iraq’s own monetary assets – those frozen in foreign banks and those still being seized in Iraq – to finance its recovery. Eventually planners hope to diversify Iraq’s economy beyond its nearly total dependence on oil revenues.

“The transition to democracy will take time, and it will not be a smooth road,” Mr Rumsfeld said in comments that appeared aimed at administration critics in the packed audience. “Trial and error and experimentation will be part of the process. Course corrections will be needed. I’m sure they will all be looked at and viewed with alarm, but we will survive that.”

Asked to explain why allied forces have not found the weapons of mass destruction that were President George W Bush’s initial rationale for invading Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld said it was known that Iraq had sizeable chemical warfare programmes and had used chemical weapons on the Iranians and its own people. He said evidence may yet turn up as the search moves farther afield.

“We don’t know what happened,” he said. “We may actually find out what happened.”

Asked why no such weapons had been found in Iraq, Rumsfeld said Saddam’s regime could have destroyed them before the US-led invasion in March.

He told the Council on Foreign Relations he did not know why Iraq had not attacked the invaders with chemical weapons – as many had predicted it would.

He said the speed of the Allied advance may have caught Baghdad off guard, but added: “It is also possible that they decided that they would destroy them prior to a conflict.”

Rumsfeld said two trailers found in northern Iraq were mobile biological weapons labs, but no actual biological weapons were found on either trailer.

“It’s a country the size of California. We haven’t managed to look in every place. Why? Because we’ve only been there seven weeks,” he said. “It’s hard to find things in a country that is determined not to have you find them.”