''There's no question but between now and the end of the year, the terrorists are determined to try to prevent the elections from taking place, and from taking place on time,'' Rumsfeld said in response to questions after a speech at the National Press Club. ''They're going to be going after coalition countries; they're going to be looking for weak spots; they're going to be going after people who are running for office.''
In an interview on Friday, Rice said that the militants have no alternative to offer but violence. ''I do not think we are going to see a delay in the election,'' she said. ''The important thing is that the insurgents don't have a political program,'' she said, apart from creating chaos and death.
Rumsfeld and Rice both asserted that Iraqi and American forces would regain control of several important parts of central Iraq, like Fallujah and Ramadi, that militants have seized in recent weeks. But neither official offered any specific details or timing.
''Nobody has ceded any area,'' Rice said, adding that the strategy in Iraq for the next few months is ''straight ahead, keep the political process on track, keep the insurgents at bay. We've been doing a lot of damage to the safe houses of the terrorists and will do more.''
In some cases, like in the recent clash in Najaf with forces loyal to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi government will eventually regain control through negotiations, Rumsfeld said. But he said other places may require force.
''We know what will take place in Fallujah, and that is that it will be restored as something under the control of the Iraqi government, eventually,'' Rumsfeld said. ''What we don't know, is whether it will be done peacefully or by force. But one way or another, it will happen.''
