Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated that Iraq has a long way to go before becoming militarily independent. Rumsfeld, speaking on numerous network talk shows Sunday morning, said that after Iraqi security forces are trained to contain the insurgents within their own country, the Iraqi military will need to be trained to repel potential invasions from neighboring countries such as Iran. No specific timetable was given but it seems clear that it would be some time before Iraqi military forces can repel an invasion from Iran. This means American troops will likely remain in Iraq for quite some time.

'It will take some time after that before they would have the kind of capability to dissuade Iran, for example, if Iran decided to try to conduct a war with them again,' Rumsfeld said.

He also added that he did not believe Iraq would create a theocratic government based strongly on Islamic law. 'I think it would just be an enormous mistake for that country to think that it could succeed with all of its opportunity with its oil, its water, its intelligent population to deny half of their population, women, to participate fully, I think just would be a terrible mistake,' Rumsfeld said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'

Rumsfeld added that Syria 'has not been helpful' in many ways. He hinted that it was supporting the insurgency and that the Syrians had failed to release millions of dollars in Iraqi assets.

Vice President Dick Cheney also tried to allay American fears of an Islamic government taking over Iraq. 'I don't think, at this stage, that there's anything like justification for hand-wringing or concern on the part of Americans that somehow they're going to produce a result we won't like,' the vice president said. Cheney referred to the Iranian government as 'a religious theocracy that has been a dismal failure, from the standpoint of the rights of individuals.'

Both the Cheney and Rumsfeld made it seem that American troops would remain in Iraq for quite some time with no withdrawal date in the foreseeable future.