Tommy Franks: US to be in Iraq for three additional years

[Prodigal Son]

Victory is around the bend folks. Right around the bend.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/11/13/d41113130782.htm

Former US General Says
US to stay in Iraq for 3 more years
AFP, Lisbon

The US-led invasion of Iraq will eventually succeed but US troops will likely have to stay in the country for up to three more years, a former commander of US forces who ran the war in Iraq and Afghanistan said here on Thursday. Retired US army general Tommy Franks added that he believed the assault by US forces against Fallujah would be a turning point in Iraq and elections will be able to go ahead as planned in the violence-ravaged country in January.
"I said when we started the operation that I thought we would be involved in Iraq in a serious way for three to five years," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

"Well we are two years into it, I think for another one to three more years we will be involved in helping Iraqis to build their own capability," he added.

"I think we will find more fighting, and Fallujah is an example of this, and we will find a lot more capacity building."

US-led forces launched an assault on Fallujah, deemed Iraq's most rebellious city, on Monday night aimed at clearing the city of Baathist rebels and foreign fighters said to be holed up there which has killed hundreds of insurgents.

Iraq's interim government has vowed to retake rebel-held cities to enable national elections to go ahead in January.

"Fallujah won't be easy, it won't be the end of anything, it is not the end of problems in Iraq, but it is the beginning of the end of problems in Iraq," Franks said.

"What we have to do is treat individual problems like Fallujah one at a time until the Iraqi people are able to control their own security and economic fortunes," he added.

Asked if he thought the war against Iraq would be succesful, Franks said: "It depends on the metric that is used. If it is the ability of the Iraqi people to control their country with a representative government, control their own wealth and resources, then of course it can be won."

"The people of Iraq over time -- in one year, three years, five years or 25 years -- will come to realize that freedom is a good thing to have, that the opportunity to be a capitilist is a good thing to have, the opportunity to go forth and achieve security and pave the way for children and grandchildren is a good thing to have."

Franks retired as head of US Central Command in August 2003, several months after Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad.

He has hailed US President George W. Bush's leadership since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and publicly endorsed the president's re-election bid.