Rumsfeld visits Kurdish region of Iraq

SALAHUDDIN, Iraq -- On a whirlwind tour of Iraq that included his first visit to the Kurdish region, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged the emerging national government Tuesday to avoid politicizing the Iraqi military.\nAt a news conference in a shaded courtyard surrounded by young pear trees, Rumsfeld was asked whether Iraqi officials he met earlier in Baghdad had given him assurances about continuity in the senior leadership of the Iraqi security forces.\n"It's not so much a matter of continuity as a matter of competence, of capability," he said in an appearance with Massoud Barzani, who has joined political forces with his former Kurdish rival, Jalal Talabani. "It's a matter of not causing undue turbulence in the Iraqi security forces and not setting back the important progress that's been achieved."\nLast week, Talabani was selected as president of the transitional government now being formed and will lead the country until constitutional elections scheduled for December. Some in the Bush administration fear the new interim government will force out political rivals who have been working with U.S. officials since Iraq regained sovereignty last June.\nRumsfeld said Washington hopes to see in the new government "highly competent people who are not going to politicize security forces" but will keep to the current strategy of maintaining a U.S. presence until Iraq's own forces are capable of defeating the insurgents.\nPresident Bush, meanwhile, visited with soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, and said the war in Iraq is "entering a new phase" as Iraqi security forces and government institutions become more capable and self-reliant.\n"America and its coalition partners are increasingly playing more of a supporting role," Bush said. "Like free people everywhere, Iraqis want to be defended and led by their own countrymen. We will help them achieve that objective so Iraqis can secure their own nation. And then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned."\nThe president met privately with the families of 33 soldiers who were killed.\nBush likened the April 9, 2003, toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad to the fall of the Berlin Wall, calling it "one of the great moments in the history of liberty."\nAs is his practice on trips to Iraq, Rumsfeld held what he calls a "town hall-style" meeting with a few hundred soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division, the main U.S. force in Baghdad. He pinned Bronze Star medals and Purple Heart awards on several soldiers and participated in the re-enlistment of about 100 soldiers.\nThe best-remembered Rumsfeld encounter with troops was his question-and-answer session last December with National Guard soldiers in Kuwait, many of whom were preparing to head to Iraq. One soldier complained to Rumsfeld about inadequate armor for his unit's vehicles, and Rumsfeld's response was seen by many as dismissive of the armor problem.\nIn what appeared to be a counterpoint to that moment, one 3rd Infantry Division soldier at Tuesday's session came forward to give Rumsfeld an engraved souvenir: The armor vest plate the soldier was wearing when it stopped a sniper's bullet.\nAnother soldier -- one of the 100 or so who had just re-enlisted -- asked Rumsfeld when the Army would reduce Iraqi tours from the current 12 months to six months. Rumsfeld hinted that tours might be reduced, but he indicated it was not expected to happen anytime soon.\nSalahuddin, a village near the city of Irbil in far northern Iraq, is Barzani's headquarters. Rumsfeld said he came here to thank Barzani personally for his long record of cooperation with the United States and for his help in defeating Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime.