WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tuesday against a premature withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, saying it would encourage extremists at an "immeasurable" cost.
If the United States pulled its troops out of Iraq before it achieves success, "the cost of failure will be severe, indeed immeasurable," she told the annual convention of the American Legion veterans in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"If we abandon the Iraqi people before their government is strong enough to secure the country, then we will show reformers across the region that America cannot be trusted to keep its word," Rice said.
Rice was speaking as pressure rises from the US public and from opposition politicians for the government to plan a withdrawal from Iraq.
But she said a premature pullout will "embolden extremists and enemies of moderation and of democratic reform."
Such a result, she said, would leave Iraq as a "failed state" comparable to Afghanistan in the 1990s, which became a haven for Al-Qaeda and the "launching pad" for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
08/29/2006 21:40 GMT