Washington – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the insurgency in Iraq is losing steam as a political force, even as Democratic congressmen warned Sunday that violence jeopardizes plans for withdrawing some troops.
Rice, in an article appearing on Time magazine’s website, argued against viewing the war solely through the rising death toll. More than 1,820 American troops have died in Iraq, at least 30 of them in the past week.
“It’s a lot easier to see the violence and suicide bombing than to see the rather quiet political progress that’s going on in parallel,” Rice said.
“If you think about how to defeat an insurgency, you defeat it not just militarily but politically,” she said, adding that she believes the insurgents are “losing steam” politically.
Appearing on Sunday news shows, Democratic lawmakers expressed misgivings about plans for withdrawing some troops from Iraq. A leading Republican said politics should not guide battlefield decisions.
Pentagon officials have been planning recently for a gradual withdrawal beginning early next year on condition that Iraqi political goals were met and the insurgency was under control. Last week the Defense Department set the number of trained Iraqis at 175,000.
Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, disputed that number Sunday, saying fewer than 3,000 Iraqis troops have been trained for all kinds of combat.
A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said Americans should prepare to be involved with Iraq for a long time.
“The insurgents are thinking in terms of years. It took 10 years in Afghanistan to evict the Soviets. We’re thinking in terms of months, and that causes problems,” Reed said on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Reed said the congressional elections next year might be an indirect factor in the discussion of troop withdrawals, but a greater factor, he added, is the growing concern among Americans about the U.S. role in Iraq.
An AP-Ipsos poll released last week showed that only four out of 10 Americans approved of President Bush’s handling of Iraq.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he thought withdrawing some troops in Iraq by next spring was feasible.
“There are always going to be insurgents in Iraq … and there’s always going to be bombs going off. That’s the nature of that neighborhood,” Hunter said on CBS. “The key is: Can this military defend its civil government and be accountable and responsible to it? I think they’re going to hold.”
