US May Keep Permanent Military Presence in Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 07, 2003

US May Keep Permanent Military Presence in Iraq

A senior US defense official indicated Sunday that the United States may keep a permanent military presence in a postwar Iraq as it has done in Germany since the end of World War II.

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A senior US defense official indicated Sunday that the United States may keep a permanent military presence in a postwar Iraq as it has done in Germany since the end of World War II.

"It's a possibility," US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Fox News Sunday when asked about the likelihood of a US military presence in Iraq as there was and still is in Germany.

But he quickly said that it is "too soon" to say what those arrangements would be.

"Many of these issues have to be decided in partnership with an Iraqi government that represents the Iraqi people," he said. "And we need to get there, so that we can make those decisions in partnership with them."

US says it might take over 6 months to hand over power in Iraq

Wolfowitz said that it probably will take more than six months for the US-led coalition to hand over power to a new Iraqi government after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government is ousted.

He said that Saddam Hussein's government will not survive the war and the coalition will take initial responsibility for administering the country for "at least six months."

Wolfowitz said the United Nations will have an important role to play, but will not be in charge of an interim government like it did in places like Kosovo.

"It's not a model we want to follow, of a sort of permanent international administration," he said.

The deputy US defense chief also said the United States is not in Iraq to run the country. "You can't talk about democracy and then turn around and say we're going to pick the leaders of this democratic country," he added.

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