Iraq 'may never be peaceful'
04/10/2006 00:18  - (SA)  

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Paris - A top Nato commander said on Tuesday that Iraq may never be free of violence.

"Will we see a day in Iraq when violence is completely gone away? I don't think so.

It wasn't that way under Saddam," said US air force General Lance L Smith, supreme allied commander transformation.

"It's going to be rough. Success will be measured on a political scale," he said.

Smith, who spoke to reporters in Paris, said there had been plenty of success in both Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly in organising and carrying through democratic elections

"Success in the long term will be measured in the ability of their elected government to take control of those countries," he said.

"It may not look like democracy in France, the UK, the US or Germany. It will be their own.

"It will be their choice."

Smith, who is charged with overseeing the modernisation of Nato's armed forces, said he was "cautiously optimistic".

"But it's in the hands of the Afghan and Iraqi people to take the opportunity they think they've been given," he said.

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