The task of stabilizing postwar Iraq has proven "tougher and more complex" than the Washington foresaw, mainly because of violence and sabotage that appears to be organized by trained forces, a top Defense Department policy adviser said.
Joseph Collins, deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability operations, told reporters Tuesday that prewar plans for restoring order in Iraq were comprehensive and carefully assembled. But once the plans met reality, they had to be adjusted, sometimes quite a lot, he said.
He was referring to the US reconstruction team in Baghdad led initially by retired Army Lieutenant General Jay Garner and more recently by L. Paul Bremer, the American administrator of postwar Iraq.
They have faced severe problems, starting with initial shortages of electricity, episodes of violence against US troops and a growing perception among Iraqis that American promises to put their country back on its feet are going unfulfilled.
Collins said it should be no surprise that the original plan would have to be adjusted, given that plans put on paper in Washington would inevitably not fit the actual situation in Iraq.
Collins said he would give the original postwar plan an "A" grade in terms of its comprehensiveness and the bureaucratic cooperation it took to piece it together. He added, "The situation has been tougher and more complex than many of these plans were able to" foresee.
As an example, he cited the original plan for restoring an Iraqi police force in Baghdad.
"This was a really professional plan," he said. "But, you know, when they got out there they realized the plan had a number of problems and now the plan is in the process of being redone."
Collins attributed some of the postwar trouble to "organized and disorganized resistance, much of which is quite professional." Some he blamed on common criminals.
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday during a visit to Lisbon, Portugal, that Americans should be patient as US forces and its coalition partners implement a stabilization plan.
Rumsfeld said that the US is talking to about three dozen countries about contributing troops to an international peacekeeping force for Iraq.
But he also said that even after the force begins arriving in September, there will be resistance from elements of Iraq's former Baathist Party and other loyalists to former president Saddam Hussein.
"Do I think that's going to disappear in the next month or two or three? No. Will it disappear when some two or three divisions of coalition forces arrive in the country?No," Rumsfeld said.
"It will take time to root out the remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime and we intend to do it," he said.
US administration officials have also urged patience in locating the weapons of mass destruction that became the main pretext for the war.
Senate Democrats have been pushing for a major investigation examining whether intelligence on Saddam's weapons programs was accurate and if it was manipulated to make the case for war.
Leading Republicans say there is no evidence of wrongdoing and no need yet for an inquiry that goes much beyond routine oversight.
Collins said the postwar looting, violence and guerrilla-style resistance in Iraq was "to some extent unexpected."
He blamed "die-hard" Baathists, terrorists, common criminals, disgruntled former Republic Guard commandos and foreign fighters who entered Iraq during the war and are now acting like "guest worker jihadists," or holy warriors.
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