President Bush's approval ratings have fallen as U.S.-led forces and their Iraqi allies struggle to make a dent against an insurgency composed of foreign fighters and disaffected Iraqis. U.S. deaths in combat hit one of their highest marks of the war last week, led by a bombing that killed 14 Marines and their Iraqi interpreter. Killings of Iraqi forces and civilians have surged since Jafari's government took office in late April, as insurgents try to wreck the government-building process.
"As we go along, everything we do has that motive: leave it so they can sustain it after we're gone," the official said. "Everything we do with the military we do so they can sustain it after we're gone. Just so we're all thinking the same thing, this is not going to be someone flips a switch and all of a sudden we go from 138,000 to nothing. This is going to be gradual."
Efforts to train Iraqi security forces involve direct U.S. military presence with the troops on the ground, the official said. "This is a bottom-up process based on the progress of these units. It's not going to be a precipitous process. As these guys come on line, we're backing ourselves out. It's tied to real, measurable" progress.
"But," he added, "you can't build an army overnight."
He said it was essential to help Iraq control its borders, cutting off what U.S. and Iraqi officials say is a flow of foreign fighters from neighboring Syria. "They're not coming in in waves, but they're coming in in sufficient numbers," he said. "And the only way to deal with them is to drive a wedge between them and Iraqi people, and kill or capture them, and close the door on letting them come in."
He also warned of possible overthrow attempts by forces of ousted president Saddam Hussein. "The Saddamists, the Baathists -- they can have a long-term strategy and bide their time," the official said.
If Iraq manages to stay on track, he said, "I think we're going to be in pretty good shape" by 2007.
Jafari, in his news conference Wednesday, said joint Iraqi-U.S. efforts were making "some progress" against the insurgency.
Jafari's Shiite Muslim-led government, many of whose top figures spent years in exile in Iran while Hussein was in power, also insisted Wednesday that U.S. reports of bombs being smuggled into Iraq from Iran were "exaggerated." Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons were being moved across the border, although he said it was impossible to tell whether they were coming from the Iranian government.
Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called Wednesday for Iraq's disparate blocs to move forward on the constitution "as there is not enough time left," Shiite political leader Abdul Aziz Hakim said after meeting with Sistani. The cleric also emphasized the role Islam should play in the constitution, Hakim said.
Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington, correspondent Jonathan Finer in Baghdad and special correspondents Omar Fekeiki, Bassam Sebti and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
