Rice: Troops will stay until Iraqis can take over
Iraqi official predicts 'at least a couple years'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq until the country's forces are capable of carrying out their own security functions.
But disagreement emerged in Washington over how many Iraqi forces have been trained to ultimately supplant U.S.-led military efforts.
Iraq's national security adviser, meanwhile, said U.S. and other international forces should remain in Iraq for years to come.
As votes from Iraq's elections were being tallied, Rice said there was no timetable to pull the 150,000 U.S. troops out of Iraq.
"The coalition is there under a U.N. mandate to help the Iraqis because they're not quite capable yet of carrying out their own security functions," she said on CNN's "Late Edition." "But we are concentrating on training those forces."
She said about 120,000 Iraqi security personnel have been trained, including more than 50,000 police. But many, she said, remain untested in battle.
"No one really knows how well they're going to fight until they're in a fight," she said.
Rice said Iraqi forces performed well in Falluja and Najaf, but she said, "We know that there are problems with leadership of the Iraqi forces. We know that there have been problems with desertion and absenteeism."
Democrats have accused the administration of inflating the figure of combat-ready Iraqis.
Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said about 40 battalions, or roughly 20,000 people, are combat-ready.
"That's as good a number as I've seen," said Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. John Warner, chairman of the committee and a Republican from Virginia, told CNN, "We're making steady progress in training the Iraqi forces."
Help needed for 'foreseeable future'
"Practically speaking, we need the multinational forces to stay in Iraq for the foreseeable future," Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told CNN.
A U.N. mandate calls for the presence of multinational forces to be reviewed in June, unless the Iraqi government requests a review sooner.
Al-Rubaie said he believes the U.S.-led force should remain in Iraq for "at least a couple of years" until Iraq's security force is up to speed.
"Then and only then, we will ask the multinational forces to leave Iraq," he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said the coalition must speed up efforts to establish Iraqi security forces capable of securing their country.
"This is a common purpose for us and the multinational forces," Saleh said. "We have already entered into discussions with the American and British partners in this."
But he refused to endorse comments by the country's interim interior minister, Falah al-Naqib, who suggested in an interview with a British television network Sunday that coalition troops could leave in 18 months.
"We should talk about conditions as opposed to timelines," Saleh said.
In addition to U.S. forces, there are about 24,000 troops from other countries in Iraq.
Senator 'appalled' at training
During confirmation hearings for Rice last week, Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, said there were only about 4,000 combat-ready troops in the Iraqi army. That figure did not include members of the national guard. (Full story)
Whatever the true number of Iraqi troops, Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, expressed dismay Sunday over their condition.
"I'm appalled at the level of training that's been taking place," the former presidential candidate said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Other countries could be training them," he added.
Neither Kerry nor Levin would support a call made Thursday by Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, for President Bush to announce his intention to negotiate a timetable for a drawdown of forces, and to pull out at least 12,000 troops at once. (Full story)
"That is putting the cart a little bit ahead of the horse," Levin said.
Although opposing a specific timetable, Kerry said the initiative for the departure of U.S. forces could come from the new Iraqi government or from Bush himself.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they even asked us to leave in some way over a period of time," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if the administration privately, behind closed doors, asked them to ask us to leave."
