SEC. RUMSFELD: Good afternoon, folks.
Q Welcome back.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Thank you.
Some 60 years ago, with the war in Europe turning against them, Hitler's forces faced defeat, and in desperation, the Nazi regime carried out some of the most indiscriminate acts of violence that had been seen during the war. With allied forces closing in on Berlin, Hitler ordered destruction of German infrastructure, and sent Germans, even very young children, Germans, out to face almost certain death as soldiers. If Germans were no longer willing to shed their own blood to ensure their right to survival, Hitler said, they deserved to die. The world saw in these acts the true nature of totalitarianism and its capacity for self-annihilation.
This may suggest why terrorists today in Iraq are indiscriminately killing so many Iraqis, even Iraqi children. They seem to either believe that this could turn the tide their way, or they've given up hope of rallying public opinion to their side. And it could also explain why extremists would risk bombing Londoners, which served, really, to harden the British people's determination to fight extremism.
At some point, most would-be terrorists should see that their cause is a desperate one. They can't hold ground for long, they have little visible political leadership, they have no positive vision to offer. The vast majority of Iraqis have rejected them at each opportunity, as evidenced by their votes in the last election, in a number of public opinion polls, and by lining up in the tens of thousands to defend their country and participate in the Iraqi security forces and in the constitutional drafting process. Even Sunnis, many of whom boycotted the January elections, have now joined the political process and decided to be a part of the Iraq of tomorrow.
In less than a week, Iraqis representing all of the various ethnic factions in the country are expected to have completed drafting the new constitution. It's important that they stay with their timetable. This will be a critical step in persuading the majority of the Iraqis that the new Iraq is worth fighting for; that they have a stake in it. Indeed, their new constitution, a piece of paper, could well turn out to be one of the most powerful weapons to be deployed against the terrorists. The enemy understandably senses this and is determined to stop the constitutional process through terror and intimidation. As the October 15th referendum date on the Iraqi constitution comes and the December elections approach, I think it's reasonable to expect that violence could again increase for a time, as it did during the last elections. But given the political progress, that should not necessarily be considered an accurate gauge of the enemy's future.
As allied forces pushed towards -- forward in both the European and the Pacific theaters in World War II, the enemy's tactics, such as the cult of death among S.S. forces and the kamikazes in the Pacific, led to some of the bloodiest fighting of that war. But those deadly acts -- and they were deadly -- prove not to be harbingers of victory. So if such tactics are used in Iraq in the months ahead, one should be careful not to draw the wrong conclusion. As long as the Iraqi people persevere, the terrorists cannot win.
One additional note. Every year since September 11th attacks, Americans have commemorated that anniversary. This year the Department of Defense will initiate an America Supports You Freedom Walk. The walk will begin at the Pentagon and end at the National Mall. It will include many of the major monuments in Washington, D.C. reminding participants of the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation that has so successfully defended our freedoms. Freedom Walk participants will be invited to a special performance by country singer Clint Black. And more information about this event will be on the Department of Defense website, www.americasupportsyou.mil.
General Myers.
GEN. MYERS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
And good afternoon. It's been a while since I've been up here with all of you. And over the last couple of weeks, as we all know, there have been several notable attacks on our forces in Iraq. American men and women have given the ultimate sacrifice or have been wounded in our effort to help bring Iraqis their freedom.
First and foremost, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the family members and the friends and the relatives of those who have been wounded or killed; all those that have been personally affected, again, I offer my heartfelt condolences, and I also want to assure them that their loss is not in vain.
Some would argue that these attacks are a sign of a strong insurgency. What I'd like to do now is to give you my perspective on this. First, the political progress in Iraq continues and has met every single planned milestone -- every single planned milestone. Since the Iraqi people took control of their own country in June of 2004, more than 8 million Iraqis voted in free elections last January. The secretary said a constitutional assembly is drafting a constitution. That constitution will be voted on in October, and national elections will be held in December.
Secondly, the Iraqi security forces are growing in capacity and capability. There are more than 178,000 trained and equipped forces, and that number continues to grow.
In the last 24 hours, 29 of the 35 operations -- these are the major operations -- conducted in Iraq were combined U.S. and Iraqi operations. More and more, coalition forces are turning over responsibilities to the Iraqis. One of the first steps in the process of transitioning areas to Iraqi security force control involves them providing for their own fuel and food. Iraqis are now contracting for their own service support to five major training bases in Kirkush, Numiniyah, Umm Qasr, Rustamiyah and Tallil.
In February, the 6th Iraqi Brigade was assigned an area of responsibility in Baghdad and continues to have that area of Baghdad as their responsibility. And in July, the Iraqi army assumed control of a sector in the Diyala province.
And lastly on reconstruction. It continues, and ongoing projects are making a difference, and they include more than 140 new primary healthcare facilities are being built, more than 3,200 schools have been renovated, 100,000 teachers are being trained.
I think these facts demonstrate that Iraq is making progress through their own efforts and the continuing support of the United States of America, our coalition partners, and the international community. We are committed to continue this battle, this help, until the Iraqis can take responsibility for the security of their own country and the political process has been developed.
Defeating the insurgency takes will power. Coalition forces continue to have the will power to take the fight to the enemy, as we have for two years now. And the only way the insurgents can win is to convince the Iraqis, to convince the American people, our coalition partners and the rest of the world that the fight in Iraq is not worth it. What I can tell you is that soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines in Iraq overwhelmingly see the benefits of this fight, and they believe as I believe, it is worth the fight.
And with that, we'll take your questions.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Yes?
Q Mr. Secretary, could you tell us the nature of the personal misconduct that caused the head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command to be relieved of his duties? And are you satisfied that sufficient action has been taken against him?
SEC. RUMSFELD: It's a matter that just came up today, to my knowledge, and it's something that's being handled in the proper channels. And it's not something that it would be appropriate for me to get involved with.
Q General Myers, could I ask you to expand on your opening remarks about the strength of the insurgency? I wonder where the IED attack last week that killed the 14 Marines fits into that scheme. Are the IED attacks increasing or declining in number? Are they growing more powerful, these bombs? And finally, how is it that the insurgents are able to transport and hide bombs that powerful?
GEN. MYERS: All right. First of all, I think you're referring to the incident where 14 Marines, Marine Reservists, matter of fact, out of Ohio were killed. They were not killed by a bomb per se, they were killed by a land mine. In fact, in this case -- I haven't seen the final report on that -- but three land mines that were put together.
If you look at the size of the land mines, it doesn't require a big hole, doesn't require a lot of people to transport them. This is not a -- in your mind, if you have a vision of a big, big bomb that upset a fairly large vehicle, that's not the vision you should have. It was a small device placed in the road -- relatively small device -- placed in the road that overturned the vehicle, and when it did so, of course, there was no way out of the vehicle once it overturned.
That's going to continue to happen. I mean, people that are -- there is no -- we've talked about that up here before; there is no perfect defense in this country, in Iraq, anywhere in the world, against people that are bent on doing those kind of acts. We've just been witness of that in London and reminded one more time.
We do, every time this happens, talk to our commanders in Iraq just to ensure that they're doing what they are doing anyway, because their interest is the same as all of our interests, and that is that nobody -- that we keep this as safe as we can. They review their tactics, techniques and procedures; they change them as the enemy changes. Clearly, improvised explosive devices, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, some with newer technologies these days, are going to change our tactics, techniques and procedures and some of the technology that we'll bring to the fight. Obviously we're going to try to do that.
Q Can I ask a question to General Myers, please. Thank you, sir. General Myers, can I expand a little bit on these sophisticated IEDs? There are reports that some of these sophisticated weapons, including shape charges, are entering Iraq from Iran. Is this true? Are they coming in in abundance? Is it part of the Iranian government, do you think, or terrorist organizations in Iran?
SEC. RUMSFELD: It is true that weapons, clearly, unambiguously from Iran have been found in Iraq. I'm not going to comment on the other aspects of your question.
Q Do you know how many, sir?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, no. Goodness, how can you know? You only know what you know. That's a big border. And it's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to cross the border.
Q Mr. Secretary?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Yes?
Q If I can take you back to your opening statement when you -- actually, General Myers made similar references to the failings of the insurgency, including their failure to garner public support. And yet, this far into the operation, the insurgency has managed to sustain itself. Does this suggest a lack of understanding on your part on what the insurgency is about, who they are, the durability of their effort?
SEC. RUMSFELD: The people who are involved in analyzing that think not. They believe with great conviction that the progress on the political, the economic and the security side, moving forward together, will in fact create an environment in that country that the Iraqis will be capable of putting down that insurgency over a period of time.
If one looks back historically at insurgencies, this insurgency does not have a vision that's compelling. It doesn't have a future except the beheadings of people and that type of thing. It is clear that the United States and the coalition forces are not occupying forces with any intention of staying there in perpetuity or to seize their land or something else.
There are various elements to the insurgency as we've discussed here from this podium; there's not one motive. But I think that as the political process goes forward and as the economic progress goes forward and as the Iraqi security forces increasingly, as General Myers said, take over more and more responsibility for the security of the country, we'll find that the persuasiveness or the effect of the insurgency will diminish.
Q General Myers?
GEN. MYERS: Let me just tag onto that. The polling data would certainly -- and we have some recent polling data that certainly indicates just the opposite, and I think we can release that at some point.
GEN. MYERS: Yeah, we can release the polling data.
But the second point is on -- you know, I've talked about hotline tips. There's a national hotline. There's also the tips that units get by just being in the neighborhood, and we track those by month, and they've gone up consistently since elections. They've gone up consistently. And that's an important indicator, I think, that the insurgency doesn't have the backing -- a popular backing.
Now to emplace three land mines in a road doesn't require a lot of support. I mean, if you add up the dollars and cents -- and the land mines are probably free, left over --
Q My point was just that, though, that despite the fact that they have apparently no public support, they continue to persist.
GEN. MYERS: Right.
Q And I'm trying to -- do you understand why?
GEN. MYERS: Well, you know -- well, and it's -- and understanding the insurgency is something that's a continuing process as it morphs. I think there are two pieces to it. There is one that will not be deterred, and that's the al Qaeda piece, the Zarqawi piece. There's the Iraqi piece, which will be deterred by the progress in the areas that the secretary talked about. Let me just give you a little more texture on that, that horrible incident when we had 14 Marines killed several days ago.
When we went back into the area -- U.S. and Iraqi troops went back into the area, and we immediately put people in detention that w
