US to stay in Iraq for 3 more years
"I said when we started the operation that I thought we would be involved in Iraq in a serious way for three to five years," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.
"Well we are two years into it, I think for another one to three more years we will be involved in helping Iraqis to build their own capability," he added.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "I think we will find more fighting, and Fallujah is an example of this, and we will find a lot more capacity building."
US-led forces launched an assault on Fallujah, deemed Iraq's most rebellious city, on Monday night aimed at clearing the city of Baathist rebels and foreign fighters said to be holed up there which has killed hundreds of insurgents.
Iraq's interim government has vowed to retake rebel-held cities to enable national elections to go ahead in January.
"Fallujah won't be easy, it won't be the end of anything, it is not the end of problems in Iraq, but it is the beginning of the end of problems in Iraq," Franks said.
"What we have to do is treat individual problems like Fallujah one at a time until the Iraqi people are able to control their own security and economic fortunes," he added.
Asked if he thought the war against Iraq would be succesful, Franks said: "It depends on the metric that is used. If it is the ability of the Iraqi people to control their country with a representative government, control their own wealth and resources, then of course it can be won."
"The people of Iraq over time -- in one year, three years, five years or 25 years -- will come to realize that freedom is a good thing to have, that the opportunity to be a capitilist is a good thing to have, the opportunity to go forth and achieve security and pave the way for children and grandchildren is a good thing to have."
Franks retired as head of US Central Command in August 2003, several months after Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad.
He has hailed US President George W. Bush's leadership since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and publicly endorsed the president's re-election bid.
Comments