...who's telling the truth? Time will tell.
According to the Times, The US wants to establish 4 military bases in Iraq:
The United States is planning a long-term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq, one that would grant the Pentagon access to military bases and project American influence into the heart of the unsettled region, senior Bush administration officials say.American military officials, in interviews this week, spoke of maintaining perhaps four bases in Iraq that could be used in the future: one at the international airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil, near Nasiriya in the south; the third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert, along the old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan; and the last at the Bashur air field in the Kurdish north.
Now Rumsfeld has denied that there are any plans for such action. From the Times
Mr. Rumsfeld said no such discussions had reached his level at the Pentagon."The impression that's left around the world is that we plan to occupy the country, we plan to use their bases over the longer period of time, and it's flat false," Mr. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news briefing.
Mr. Rumsfeld said neither he nor Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, nor any other Pentagon official at what he considers a senior level had been involved in any discussions about a future military relationship with Iraq, or about using bases there.
"There has been zero discussion among senior Bush administration officials, the way I define senior, on that subject," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld was a little more outspoken, as quoted by WorldNet Daily:
"Let me just get this off my chest," Rumsfeld said in response to a question about the article. "I have no idea who these people talked to. But I'll tell you, if I were a journalist, I would ... remember who they are, and I'd write their name down, and I would rank them right at the bottom in terms of reliability, credibility, judgment [and] knowledge.""The people peddling that stuff are wrong, and the people writing it should check things out better," he added later.
and
"The impression that's left around the world is that we plan to occupy the country, we plan to use their bases over the long period of time, and it's flat false," said Rumsfeld. "Now, what is going on? There are four bases that the U.S. is using in that country to help bring in humanitarian assistance, to help provide for stability operations. And are they doing that? Sure. But does that have anything to do with the long term footprint? Not a whit."
This one will be easy to follow up on. We'll see who's telling the truth and who's falls to the bottom of the credibility gap. Politicians rarely speak so definitively, so I'm giving the nod to Rummy for now.
Posted by Rich at April 22, 2003 11:05 AM | TrackBack