Friday, March 25, 2005 | 9:57 a.m.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's top policy adviser on Thursday defended the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, describing both conflicts as successes in spreading political development and democracy in the middle east or central Asia.
Douglas J. Feith, the outgoing undersecretary of defense for policy, also told a small audience in Henderson that the Bush administration is currently pursuing a diplomatic solution with North Korea and Iran rather than a unilateral military action.
Feith declared that he is stepping down as undersecretary of defense for policy this summer. He said he resigned in order to spend more time with his family.
Feith rarely strayed from the well-publicized opinions of the current Bush administration during his appearance but offered an intimate glimpse into the strategy and thinking of one of the top officials in the Pentagon.
"I don't want to suggest that there are not major problems and challenges both in Afghanistan and Iraq; I don't mean to imply the picture is all rosy -- it is not," Feith said at the Revere Golf Club.
"But Afghanistan is viewed as really a pretty remarkable success. And if we find that in a year from now Iraq is as far along in developing its political institutions and fighting the insurgency as Afghanistan is, I think people will look at that as a great achievement."
Feith was in Las Vegas for a one-day tour of Nellis Air Force base, where he viewed the joint Red Flag combat exercises, said Nellis spokesman Capt. Steven Rolenc.
The Las Vegas World Affairs Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that builds understanding of international affairs, organized Feith's appearance at the Revere Golf Club. He is scheduled to return to Washington today, said Benjamin Duchek, executive director of the Las Vegas World Affairs Council.
Keeping within the bounds of the Bush administration's "talking points," Feith said that while there have been substantial casualties in the two years of the Iraqi war, America and other nations are essentially in a safer position because former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.
Successes in the war in Iraq, signified by the large turnout for the January elections, have shown that the war is building democratic institutions in Iraq, changing the politics of the middle east and could help win the war on terror, he said.
Even though Feith said these were always the administration's goals for the Iraqi war, he conceded that the administration at times focused primarily on the supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq as one of the primary reasons for invading the country two years ago.
"The full range of considerations was there, although I do admit that we tended to give a particular emphasis on the WMD issue," Feith said.
More than 1,500 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since it began in March 2002. A total of 12 soldiers with ties to Nevada have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait since 2001, when the U.S. first went to war with Afghanistan.
Feith also described the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq as a "dreadful, damaging set of actions by people who were doing things they shouldn't have done," but depicted the abuse at the hands of U.S. servicemen and women as going against the administration's policies for handling prisoners.
"Nobody said that inhumane (treatment) could be used to break people down. That was not policy," he said.
Abu Ghraib, the U.S. military prison 20 miles outside of Baghdad, came to light last year when photos surfaced showing U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. Six soldiers have accepted plea bargains in the scandal and one, Charles Grainer, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for abusing the prisoners.
Feith also touted the successes in Afghanistan. He said that since the United States toppled the Taliban regime -- a regime that was harboring al-Qaida and allegedly Osama bin Laden -- the country has moved forward with building democratic institutions and successfully held presidential elections.
However, he said that the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, which have been delayed three times and are now rescheduled for September 2006, are much more complicated than a one-office election and therefore have been harder to organize.
The overall mission in Afghanistan, he said, was a success because the coalition forces overthrew the Taliban regime and destabilized the al-Qaida network. But he admitted that Osama bin Laden is still at large.
"We want to get Osama bin Laden and we haven't gotten him yet, so that has not succeeded yet," Feith said.
He ultimately provided a positive image of the United States, saying that the United States and the Pentagon will work with allies to reduce global threats such as nuclear proliferation or the harboring of terrorists.
In that respect, he said the current standoffs between North Korea and Iran are being solved through diplomatic negotiations rather than force, as was used in Iraq.
President Bush previously described Iran and North Korea as part of the "axis of evil," but "we are pursuing diplomatic means to try to resolve the problems of North Korea and Iran," he said.
Iran is currently in negotiations with European allies to not pursue a nuclear program. Iran claims it is pursuing the nuclear program for peaceful means.
North Korea, meanwhile, has refused to rejoin nuclear disarmament negotiations with America, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia and stated earlier this year that it possesses nuclear weapons.1Feith
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