US Underestimated Difficulty Of Iraq Political Reforms

Thursday, August 2nd 2007, 10:24 am

By: News On 6

KUWAIT CITY (AP) _ U.S. officials underestimated how difficult it would be for the Iraqi government to pass political reforms, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, adding that the ``depth of mistrust'' among the factions is greater than anticipated.

Talking to reporters on board his plane as he returned from a four-day swing through the Middle East, Gates said he is more optimistic about improvements in security in the wartorn nation than he is about getting legislation passed by the bitterly divided government.

``In some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation,'' Gates said. ``The kinds of legislation they're talking about will establish the framework of Iraq for the future so it's almost like our constitutional convention ... And the difficulty in coming to grips with those, we may all have underestimated six or eight months ago.''

Gates' comments came a day after six Sunni Cabinet ministers from the Iraqi Accordance Front quit in protest over what they said was Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to respond to a set of demands. Just two Sunnis remain in the 40-member Cabinet, and Maliki Thursday was working to get the six to reconsider.

The Bush administration ordered a build-up of U.S. forces in Iraq _ adding about 30,000 troops for a total of nearly 160,000 - to quell the violence so the government could stabilize and take hold. That would then allow the U.S. to begin the much-demanded withdrawal of troops.

On Thursday Gates said the political developments are ``somewhat discouraging at the national level,'' but he hopes it can be patched back together.

Meanwhile, he said security is improving.

``I am optimistic on the security side because of what I see in al Anbar, and what we're seeing in some of the other provinces where we're getting some cooperation,'' he said.''