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Tuesday, April 22, 2003

By Bradley Graham, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that the United States is unlikely to seek any permanent or "long-term" bases in Iraq because U.S. basing arrangements with other countries in the region are sufficient.

While stressing that discussion of future U.S. military ties with Iraq is premature in the absence of a new Iraqi government, Rumsfeld appeared intent yesterday on knocking down the idea of an indefinite U.S. military presence in Iraq. A newspaper report over the weekend suggested that among the options the administration is considering is permanent U.S. access to several Iraqi airfields.

"I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. "The likelihood of it seems to me to be so low that it does not surprise me that it's never been discussed in my presence -- to my knowledge."

He added later that his answer would be the same if "long-term" were substituted for "permanent."

The kind of military relationship that the United States will establish with the new Iraqi leadership is a particularly sensitive subject for the Bush administration, which has insisted that U.S. troops wouldn't become an occupying force.

Airfields are of particular interest to Pentagon officials as a means of projecting U.S. forces quickly into a region during a crisis. Since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the Air Force has gained permission to operate in a number of the former Soviet states of eastern Europe and Central Asia, and has expanded operations in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

In Iraq, U.S. military planes are using four airfields to ferry humanitarian supplies and run reconnaissance patrols: at the international airport outside Baghdad; at Tallil, near Nasiriyah in the south; at an airstrip called H-1 in western Iraq; and at Bashur in the Kurdish-controlled north.

Rumsfeld said the existence of other U.S. basing options in the Persian Gulf region would probably remove the need for a U.S. presence in Iraq. Rumsfeld was responding to questions about a report in Sunday's New York Times quoting unidentified senior administration officials as suggesting the United States was considering permanent basing arrangements in Iraq.

"It's not like we need a new place," he said. "We have plenty of friends and plenty of ability to work with them, and have locations for things that help to contribute to stability in the region."

Pentagon authorities have made clear a desire to begin shrinking the U.S. military presence in the Middle East and Southwest Asia in the wake of the Iraq war to save money and reduce the military's vulnerability to terrorist attack. Already, the United States has withdrawn nearly all of its 50 attack and support airplanes from Turkey's Incirlik air base, which had been used to enforce a "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq since 1991. Many expect the Pentagon to reduce its air fleet in Saudi Arabia after the dissolution of the "no-fly" zone in southern Iraq.

Asked his thoughts on the future U.S. military presence in the Middle East, Rumsfeld said he has "something in mind" but declined to disclose it until he can discuss it further with governments in the region. He's planning a trip to the area in the near future.

Although U.S. combat activity in Iraq has dwindled, Rumsfeld was evasive on the question of when the administration would declare a formal end to the war. He said the subject was under discussion with allies. He also suggested the situation in Iraq would evolve much as it has in Afghanistan, with a "reasonably stable environment" emerging "in much of the country," while pockets of resistance and attacks on U.S. forces continued elsewhere.

"Ultimately, at some point, it will be over," Rumsfeld said. "But is it over now? No." He said more than 20 countries are involved in Iraq, providing either forces on the ground or other "support" functions. Among the contributions he cited were: 300 police officials from Italy; an unspecified number of military forces from Albania; cargo handlers and a medical team from Lithuania; a field hospital with 40 doctors from the Czech Republic; other field hospitals from Jordan and Saudi Arabia; and a ship with a medical unit from Spain.