WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (AFP) - The United States could begin to withdraw troops from Iraq before the country is at peace, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested Friday after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
"Any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and US forces would obviously be, I think, unwise because it has never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld's comments were in jarring contrast to President George W. Bush's vow to "stay the course" in Iraq as well as the administration's broader effort to portray the situation in Iraq as one of steady progress despite an onslaught of insurgent violence.
It came only a day after the secretary told members of Congress that if violence made elections impossible in parts of the country, "Well, so be it." An imperfect election, he said, was better than none at all.
But it also appeared to be a response to a drumbeat of Democratic charges that the administration has no plan to get US forces out of Iraq.
Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry has said he would withdraw the 140,000-member US force from Iraq in four years, replacing them with Iraqi security forces and troops from other countries.
Rumsfeld indicated in his comments to reporters that the training of Iraqi security forces to assume responsibility for the country's security has become a central preoccupation at the Pentagon.
He pointed to the disadvantages of having a large foreign military presence in the country.
"There is a tension there. No country wants foreign forces in your country any longer than they have to be there," he told reporters after his meeting at the Pentagon with Allawi.
"The more of them you have, the more force protection you have to have, the more combat support you have to have. The heavier your footprint is, the more intrusive you are in their lives," he said.
"The question is to balance the numbers against the disadvantage that begins to accrue by having an excessively large footprint, against the advantage that tends to accrue by having more people to do more things to help get to the point you want to that they in fact can take over those responsibility."
Rumsfeld said about 100,000 Iraqi security forces are now fully trained and equipped, and up to 150,000 should be ready during the election period, he said. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were volunteering for the security forces, he said.
An earlier US attempt to rapidly field a 200,000-member Iraqi security force with an eye to shrinking the US military presence failed in April when they refused to fight or fled in the face of uprisings in both Shiite and Sunni communities.
US officials hope that with better training and equipment and an Iraqi government in place the Iraqi security forces will hold.
But it is being put to the test by a wave of car bombings, beheadings of hostages and fighting that has raised questions about the viability of January elections in Iraq.
US commanders and Iraqi leaders now face the dilemma of whether to use force to recover insurgent control communities.
"In some places we've used force, in some places we've used diplomacy," he said.
"Has it worked everywhere? Did it work in Fallujah? No, obviously not. It didn't work in Fallujah. The Fallujah Brigade didn't work," he said.
"And they tried. And they're sorry. And they're not going to let it sit there. They're going to do something else about it. And life will go on," he said.
Rumsfeld said it would be a judgement call as to whether the additional Iraqi security forces will be sufficient to provide security for the election.
"Well, you know, time will tell. We've said it 100 times: If General Abizaid decides he needs more forces, obviously, there'll be more U.S. forces," Rumsfeld said, referring to the head of the US Central Command, General John Abizaid.