Rumsfeld: Saddam is losing control

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared Friday that the Iraqi government was starting to crumble as he laid out eight broad objectives by which the Bush administration would define victory.

Saddam Hussein and his loyalists are ``starting to lose control of their country,'' Rumsfeld said. ``The confusion of Iraqi officials is growing. Their ability to see what is happening on the battlefield, to communicate with their forces and to control their country is slipping away.''

Senior White House aides said President Bush would monitor developments in the war this weekend from Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, where he was to be joined by members of his war council.

Although Rumsfeld did not mention the 1991 Persian Gulf War to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait, he was no doubt cognizant that the first President Bush was criticized for achieving battlefield success but not a decisive political victory over Saddam in that war.

``Our goal is to defend the American people, and to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and to liberate the Iraqi people,'' Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon briefing and defining the overall goal of the war.

The first of the eight specific aims, Rumsfeld said, is to ``end the regime of Saddam Hussein by striking with force on a scope and scale that makes clear to Iraqis that he and his regime are finished.''

Second, any arsenal of biological and chemical weapons, and any program to develop nuclear weapons, also are targets, Rumsfeld said. The American military has been ordered ``to identify, isolate and eventually eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, production capabilities and distribution networks,'' he said.

The third task is to ``search for, capture, drive out terrorists who have found safe harbor in Iraq,'' he added.

Next, he said, the allied forces will be ordered to ``collect such intelligence as we can find related to terrorist networks in Iraq and beyond.''

The fifth goal, Rumsfeld said, is to ``collect such intelligence as we can find related to the global network of illicit weapons of mass destruction activity.''

The United States also seeks ``to end sanctions and to immediately deliver humanitarian relief, food and medicine to the displaced and to the many needy Iraqi citizens,'' he said.

Military forces also will try to ``secure Iraq's oil fields and resources, which belong to the Iraqi people, and which they will need to develop their country after decades of neglect by the Iraqi regime,'' he said.

Lastly, Rumsfeld said, the war effort is ``to help the Iraqi people create the conditions for a rapid transition to a representative self-government that is not a threat to its neighbors and is committed to ensuring the territorial integrity of that country.''

On Friday morning, Bush gave a classified briefing on the military campaign to five congressional leaders he had summoned to the Oval Office.

``We're making progress,'' Bush told reporters at the start of the meeting. ``We will stay on task until we've achieved our objective, which is to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.''

The leaders at the meeting were the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.; Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican majority leader; Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic minority leader; Tom DeLay of Texas, the House Republican leader; and Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader.

Bush thanked the leaders for resolutions passed by both houses of Congress supporting American troops. ``Not only do we support those brave souls who are sacrificing on our behalf, but we want to thank their parents and their families for their dedication as well,'' Bush said.

Earlier, Bush met with Rumsfeld about the unfolding military campaign and attended a National Security Council meeting in the White House Situation Room. After taping his weekly radio address, to be broadcast this morning, Bush took off early Friday afternoon from the White House South Lawn in a helicopter bound for Camp David.

Bush also won formal support in the war from the House of Representatives on Friday. After hours of wrangling, the House voted 392-11 to adopt a resolution supporting the president's ``firm leadership and decisive action in the conduct of military operations in Iraq.''

The Senate adopted its resolution unanimously on Thursday afternoon.

As more Iraqi troops began to surrender Friday, some senior American military officers expressed doubt that secret talks with elite Iraqi units like the Republican Guard would lead to significant surrenders.

``I'd be cautious,'' said one senior officer. ``I wouldn't raise expectations.''