WRAP Rumsfeld comments on Iraq after meeting Allawi

(24 Sep 2004) AGENCY POOL 1. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi entering ceremonial room 2. Close up of Allawi and Rumsfeld standing together 3. Rumsfeld at meeting table 4. Wide shot of meeting table, zoom in to Allawi, pan to Rumsfeld 5. Wide shot of meeting table APTN 6. Rumsfeld entering conference room 7. Rumsfeld's staff 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence: "Second, we know that the Iraqi forces are going up on a weekly basis, fully trained, fully equipped. The number's now about a hundred thousand and it's increasing and expected to be closer to 150-thousand during that period. So, we know forces are going up and the question is: you match the coalition forces, the US forces, the Iraqi forces against the circumstances on the ground at that time and make judgments and that's what we'll do: we'll make judgments." 9. Photographer 10. Wide shot of Rumsfeld at podium 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence: "If any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and US forces, I think we'd obviously be morons because it's never been peaceful and perfect and it isn't likely to be. It's a tough part of the world. Our goal is to invest the time and the money and the effort to help them train up Iraqis to take over those responsibilities. We had something like 200 or 300 of 400 people killed in many of the major cities of America last year. Is it perfectly peaceful? No. What's the difference? We just didn't see each homicide in every major city in the United States on television every night." 12. Wide pan of news conference STORYLINE: US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld suggested on Friday that US troop reductions in Iraq would be possible once Iraqi security forces were trained to take over their job. He said: "Our goal is to invest the time and the money and the effort to help them train up Iraqis to take over those responsibilities." He added that it would be unrealistic to wait for Iraq to be peaceful before removing coalition and US forces from the country, saying that Iraq had "never been peaceful and perfect". However, he also said that he expected the number of troops to increase in the run up to the Iraqi elections as coalition forces would provide more soldiers for extra security. Rumsfeld made his comments following a meeting with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Allawi is in America for a round of talks with top administration officials, including a Thursday meeting with President George W Bush. On Thursday, Rumsfeld suggested that parts of Iraq might have to be excluded from the elections, scheduled to take place in January, because of continuing violence. The secretary, at a Senate committee, was asked how elections could be held if restive cities remained in revolt when UN-supervised elections are to be held. However, the No. 2 official at the State Department said on Friday that the elections planned for January in Iraq must be "open to all citizens". "We're going to have an election that is free and open and that has to be open to all citizens. It's got to be our best effort to get it into troubled areas as well," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a House of Representatives committee Friday, after being asked about Rumsfeld's words. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...