By Peggy B. Hu
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sends a clear message that the Ba'athist regime is over, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers said in talk show appearances December 21.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Myers said, "The capture of Saddam Hussein and the intelligence we've gleaned from him is a big step in the inevitable process of Iraq's march to a democracy."

"It's a huge step, but it's not the only step required," he added. "There's a lot of hard work yet to go."

In an appearance on CBS's Face the Nation, Myers said some of the papers found with Saddam Hussein have given coalition forces "a better understanding of some of the former regime elements and how they are organized." Myers said that over 200 people have been detained, based on intelligence obtained from the papers.

Since Saddam Hussein's capture, the coalition has seen an increase in the number of Iraqis coming forward to provide intelligence on former regime elements who may be trying to do Iraqis or the coalition harm, according to Myers.

Myers recalled a similar surge in informants after the death of Saddam Hussein's sons and said on Fox News Sunday that the willingness of Iraqis to come forward is due to "a realization that this Ba'ath Party and all its remnants are never coming back to power in Iraq."

"There is going to be a new Iraq, it's going to be based on democratic principles," he said.

"In the end that's how we are going to defeat the former regime elements, the foreign jihadists that might be in there, criminal activity. It's Iraqis finally saying, 'We're not afraid anymore. We want a better Iraq for Iraqi people,'" he said on CBS's Face the Nation.

Myers said the coalition will be negotiating with the new Iraqi government on the role of coalition forces in the country.

"There will obviously have to be some role, and for some time," he said. Myers said that he did not know how much longer coalition forces would remain in the country, but he stressed that the duration of their stay will be "event driven," rather than "timeline driven."

"I think that we need to be there with the resolve and the will to win, because it's so important for whatever length of time it takes," he said.

Myers said that he does not see the need for additional U.S. troops in Iraq at the moment. "We need to become as efficient as we can become before we start to say we need more people to come on board," he said. "The last thing you want to do is bring somebody on board and then have a manpower-intensive budget in the future that may or may not be required."

In response to criticism regarding the disbandment of the former regime's military forces, Myers said that he did not know if it would have been possible "to just transfer the old Iraqi army over to some new entity."

"The fact is the parts of the Iraqi army that we really would have been interested were the regular army, made up of mainly of conscripts who faded away," he said. Coalition forces would have also needed to scrutinize any of the senior leadership from the old Iraqi army thoroughly because of their closeness to the old regime, he added.

Regarding the search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, Myers said on Fox News Sunday that the weapons search will be "like finding Saddam Hussein."

"It took the right series of events, the right individuals to keep tracking him to find the right person that could eventually say, 'Here is where we think he is.' The same thing is going to be true of WMD," he said.

Regarding Afghanistan, Myers said on CBS's Face the Nation that things are "going very well."

"We have a constitutional loya jirga going on in Kabul. It's been relatively secure," he said.

Myers credited the work of provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan, which are trying "to bring the power of the central government to the various regions, provide projects and so forth, and combine security with U.N. help, with non-governmental organization help, and show the people that there's a real benefit to being part of a larger Afghani state."

Myers said he feels it is "just a matter of time" before Osama bin Laden will be captured because "his options for hiding become less and less as we gain more and more intelligence."

"There are people in this government and in other governments that are dedicated to finding him. I think it's just a matter of time before we do," he said.