Rumsfeld: Iraqis Must Handle Security

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today dismissed the significance of recent setbacks in Iraq, saying they do not mean U.S. strategy has failed and stressing that U.S. forces must continue passing responsibilities to the Iraqis to avoid creating "a dependency on their part."

Iraqi authorities, he said at a Pentagon news briefing, are going to have to provide security for their country "sooner rather than later."

However, Rumsfeld declined to say whether he believes a "course correction" is needed in Iraq, where U.S. and Iraqi casualties have been mounting in recent weeks amid spreading sectarian violence and growing insecurity in Baghdad.

Rumsfeld said he prefers to give his advice directly to President Bush and noted that he plans to join Bush, Vice President Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley tomorrow in a conference via secure video hookup to "discuss the way forward" in Iraq with Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Baghdad.

Bush, in a speech today in Washington, suggested his administration is committed to a military presence in Iraq as part of the war on terror.

"My message to the United States of America is: Victory in Iraq is vital for the security of a generation of Americans who are coming up," Bush told a National Republican Senatorial Committee reception. "And so we will stay in Iraq, we will fight in Iraq and we will win in Iraq."

Bush spoke as Senate and House Democratic leaders urged him in a letter to "change course" and support a phased redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq by year's end. The letter comes less than three weeks before the mid-term elections, in which Democrats hope to gain control of the House and Senate, and as the death toll for American troops in Iraq reached 74 this month. Almost 2,800 U.S. troops have died since the conflict began more than three years ago.

"We write out of a deep sense of concern that the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate and that there is no effective plan for improvement," read a letter to Bush from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and 10 other Democratic leaders.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said at a news briefing today that Bush has no immediate plans for a phased pullout of troops.

"The president's made it clear that he is not going to do a phased withdrawal just for the hell of doing a phased withdrawal," Snow said.

Snow said Bush would consider a phased withdrawal of troops if U.S. military leaders recommended it.

"The president doesn't like being in this war," Snow said. "Nobody likes being in a war."