U.S. says cannot "subdue every bad guy" in Iraq
By Will Dunham
10 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amid unrelenting violence in Iraq, President George W. Bush's spokesman said on Wednesday the top goal of U.S. troops is to train Iraqi forces, and not trying to "subdue every bad guy in the country."
"As a matter of fact, the central mission to the United States is to train Iraqi forces so they can do the job. They get better intelligence. They know the people who are there. It is their country. And it's their obligation and responsibility," spokesman Tony Snow said on MSNBC.
A classified assessment by Col. Peter Devlin, parts of which became public this week, concluded that the situation in Anbar province, a vast western desert considered the Sunni Muslim insurgency's heartland, is grim and will deteriorate without an infusion of American troops and aid.
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"The key in Iraq is not for the United States to go in and subdue every bad guy in the country. That would be failure. That would mean that we have to occupy Iraq forever. We don't want to do that," Snow said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060913/ts_nm/iraq_usa_dc_1