Powell gives bleak assessment of Iraq

Colin Powell, US secretary of state, says he would like to see US troops leave Iraq “as quickly as possible” but that the insurgency does not allow the Bush administration to set a timeframe for a withdrawal.

He said Mr Rumsfeld, criticised for the conduct of the war, had an interest in hiding the true picture from the president. According to Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle East Policy Council, Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the progress of the war. “We're losing,” Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.


One counterinsurgency expert said Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, had a “brutally accurate” picture of the situation and the potential dangers. But a member of an influential neoconservative policy group, who asked not to be named, said such warnings “stop well short of thepresident”.

He said Mr Rumsfeld, criticised for the conduct of the war, had an interest in hiding the true picture from the president. According to Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle East Policy Council, Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the progress of the war. “We're losing,” Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.

Asked to comment on this account, a senior White House official said he had no knowledge of such an exchange and added: “The president acknowledges there are significant challenges. He does not characterise them as insurmountable. Others do.”

Analysts are concerned that with the departure of Mr Powell and his replacement by Condoleezza Rice, the president's loyal national security adviser, the White House will be further shielded from dissent.


“A president is not well served when he has people in his cabinet who have points of view but are not prepared to argue those points of view forcefully for fear that it might leak or it looks like members of the cabinet are squabbling,” Mr Powell told Fox News.

The White House is stressing the January 30 election is just the start of a process that is scheduled to lead to a national referendum on a constitution by October and another parliamentary election by December.

Mr Powell said there must be Sunni representation in the government to be formed after the elections. This reflects US efforts to persuade the main parties of the Shia majority, who are expected to sweep the polls, to co-opt members of the Sunni minority into the administration and the process of drafting the constitution. US leverage rests upon awareness among the Shia that their government is unlikely to survive a civil war without continued US military support.

Charles Boyd, a former general who had opposed the war, said he was dismayed at the administration's lack of commitment in fighting it.

“Our government is not mobilised for war of this size and complexity. We are acting on a ‘business as usual' format,” he said.

Weapons hunt over

Although the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction has ended, the Iraqi Survey Group will continue gathering information to help US forces deal with insurgents in Iraq. Charles Duelfer, the CIA special adviser who led the search, is expected to issue a final addendum next month to his September report concluding Iraq had no such weapons.

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