Iraqis get an earful from Rumsfeld

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday. NBC News’ Charles Sabine reports from Baghdad on the message Rumsfeld brought to Iraqi leaders, mainly stressing the need to quickly establish a new government.

What was Secretary Rumsfeld’s main message?
Rumsfeld’s message was made extremely loudly and clearly in his indomitable style when he told the interim Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari about Washington’s frustration with the fact that 10 weeks after the historic elections here in Iraq, the government has still yet to be formed.

The defense secretary made the Iraqi officials fully aware of his belief that this delay is having damaging effects on Iraq’s future. It not only undermines the faith of the Iraqi people in democracy. But, every day the formation of the government is delayed is yet another day that U.S. troops are going to have to remain in this country. In addition, the power vacuum only feeds the insurgency that is making the daily lives of regular Iraqis so miserable. 

There were numerous vivid illustrations that the insurgency is still alive on Tuesday. As Rumsfeld was meeting with both Iraqi politicians and later with U.S. military commanders there was an incident in Mosul, to the north of Baghdad, where five civilians were killed after a car bomb attack on a U.S. convoy there.   

With violence continuing, how was Rumsfeld’s message regarding political expediency and need to be vigilant against corruption taken?
The defense secretary was assured by the fledgling political leaders that they are doing everything that they can to move this process along.

The Iraqis say that they understand the concerns of the Washington administration. They also said that they do not intend to put off the creation of a constitution here until the middle of August.

Although, they do have a legal window of opportunity that would allow them a delay of six months, they understand the message from Rumsfeld and the U.S. administration is that they should not use that six-month delay. They say that they will be doing everything they can in the coming days to create the government so that they can put the constitution into place.

Do the Iraqis have a timeline for when they plan to have the government in place? 
The Iraqis have said that they will have a government in place within two weeks. The key issues that are still outstanding are the defense and oil ministries. They say that they will have those two powerful ministers appointed within the next 10 to 14 days. By that time the government should be fully in place and it can start working on the constitution.    

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