By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Republican lawmaker said on Sunday it could be at least five years before a new government is up and running in Iraq (news - web sites).
As the U.S. administration was reportedly considering a long-term military arrangement in the country, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said the U.S. effort led by retired Gen. Jay Garner to begin rebuilding post-war Iraq had "started very late" and gaps were being filled by Shi'ite Muslims and others who seek a theocratic state over a democracy.
"I would think at least we ought to be thinking of a period of five years of time. Now, that may understate it," Lugar, an Indiana Republican, told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
Lugar was one of several U.S. lawmakers and former officials appearing on Sunday morning talk shows in the aftermath of the successful U.S. military assault on Iraq that brought down the government of President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
The New York Times on Sunday reported that the United States was planning a long-term military relationship with the new government of Iraq that would give the Pentagon (news - web sites) access to four military bases in the country. Such an arrangement could spark additional concern in the Middle East where general Arab sentiment is for the United States to leave Iraq quickly.
Speaking to reporters in Texas, President Bush (news - web sites) would not predict how long U.S. troops would remain in Iraq, saying he would not declare the war over until the commanding general, Tommy Franks, said so.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said earlier on Sunday that the U.S.-led forces were preparing to proclaim victory in the next few days.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said U.S. troops would remain as long as it took to secure the country and then would leave.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, shied away from saying there would be a "permanent" U.S. military force in Iraq but said the United States would be required to keep a presence in the region.
"We've come to stay, but we've come to leave," Roberts said on "Fox News Sunday."
"I remember when President (Bill) Clinton indicated we would be in the Balkans for about a year. Now it's a decade later. We're still there, and we still need to be there," Roberts said. The NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeeping operation in Bosnia began in December 1995 and, although much reduced, still numbers over 10,000 troops.
Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he would expect U.S. troop presence to be "an evolutionary process" with a significant number early on until the situation settled down.
"We're going to have to be there for a while, not permanently, but for a while, because we don't want to win the war and then lose the peace," Bayh told the Fox program.
Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, one of the strongest advocates for military action against Iraq, was more optimistic, telling CBS's "Face the Nation" that "a transition could be short -- a matter of months. I would hope that it would only be a matter of months."
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told CNN's "Late Edition" U.S. troops would likely "stay longer than two years."
Former CIA (news - web sites) Director James Woolsey said the United States would have to maintain a military presence of "some substantial degree" in the Gulf region.