Rumsfeld advocates US `exit strategy' from Iraq.

Publication: Chicago Tribune (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Chicago Tribune

Byline: Michael Kilian

WASHINGTON _ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, just back from Iraq, said Wednesday that it is not the job of the United States to reconstruct that nation, and he blamed former leader Saddam Hussein, rather than the American-led invasion, for the deteriorated conditions there.

Rumsfeld said the administration's "exit strategy" is to turn over political control and security operations to the Iraqis as fast as possible. He urged that much of the recovery and security burden be shifted not only to other countries but also to such international organizations such as the World Bank.

"I don't believe it's our job to reconstruct that country after 30 years of centralized, Stalinist-like economic controls in that country," Rumsfeld said in an address at the...

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