Rumsfeld defends Iraq policies
Joint Chiefs chairman acknowledges that forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are using up equipment faster than anticipated.
Despite repeated efforts by Senate Appropriations Chairman Stevens to limit questions at Wednesday's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to budget issues, Democrats bored in on top Defense Department officials about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and the uncertainties facing U.S. policymakers after Iraq's transition to civilian rule June 30.
In sometimes testy exchanges with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who stoutly defended Bush administration policies, Democrats charged that directives governing the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison violated the Geneva Conventions and appeared to be sanctioned by the department and the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the interrogation guidelines for military intelligence agents and police at the prison indicated that not simply a handful of soldiers but the chain of command itself had engaged in a process that led to the abuses.
Rumsfeld took emphatic exception to that and declared, "The question of whether the problem is systemic is not obvious to me."
When Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., asked why the administration had not clarified that the United States would abide by the conventions, Rumsfeld charged that critics and the media have been "inaccurate" in describing the situation.
"There is no ambiguity as to whether or not the Geneva Conventions apply in Iraq [a signatory to the conventions]. The conventions apply to nations; they don't apply to terrorists." He also said they did not apply to al-Qaida or to the Taliban in Afghanistan, who harbored al-Qaida terrorists. "Terrorists do not comply with the rules of war," Rumsfeld said.
On the budgetary side, both Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers confirmed that the Defense Department would soon send a request for $25 billion in additional funding to pay for the war in the early months of the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1, and then make another supplemental appropriations request next spring.
Myers conceded that forces in Iraq and Afghanistan were using up equipment faster than anticipated, ranging from helicopter blades to tracks for armored vehicles. Both officials also said that the Iraq situation could get worse before it gets better, after the turnover of governmental control there to the Iraqis.
Under questioning from Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Myers also said the need for U.S. troops in Iraq after the turnover would remain largely at the current level of 135,000 in the foreseeable future. He also acknowledged that there was "no military victory" to be attained there unless the Iraqis themselves take control of their future and install a democratic government.
"We could flood the country with U.S. soldiers," Myers said, "but we wouldn't achieve our end objective -- a free and democratic Iraq."