WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (AFP) - General John Abizaid, chief of US Central Command, warned Sunday that "we will fight our way through elections" scheduled for January in Iraq, and that he cannot predict that the entire country would be able to vote.
"I am not predicting victory by January at the end of the elections," Abizaid told NBC television.
"I am predicting that we'll have an election. We will fight our way through elections. It will be tough, it will be hard, but it will move us a step closer toward ultimate victory, which is when Iraqis control their own destiny."
"My belief is that elections will occur in the vast majority of the country. I can't predict 100 percent that all areas will be available for free fair and peaceful elections," he said on NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.
"I assume that there will be certain areas of the country that will have to be fought over in order to have the elections take place."
"The American people need to brace themselves for a long war in the Middle East and Central Asia," Abizaid said, saying that the extremist views espoused by terrorists must not be allowed to prevail in the region.
"It's not a war that needs to entail a large number of American forces, but it's a war where intelligence, where economics, where political and diplomatic power need to come together with military power to defeat this ideology."