U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admits to the BBC that Iraq is no safer than it was in 2003, when America brought freedom from tyranny.
An excerpt:
In an interview for the BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Rumsfeld said Iraq had passed several milestones, like holding elections and appointing a government.
But asked if the security situation had improved, he admitted: "Statistically, no."
"But clearly it has been getting better as we've gone along," he added.
"A lot of bad things that could have happened have not happened."
He said that efforts had shifted from counter-insurgency to helping the Iraqi security forces.
"The important thing ... is to recognise that this insurgency is going to be defeated not by the coalition - it's going to be defeated by the Iraqi people and by the Iraqi security forces, and that it's going to happen as the Iraq people begin to believe they've got a future in that country," he said.
He added that Syria was not doing enough to stop the insurgency and that Iran was meddling in Iraqi politics.
