On a whirlwind tour of Iraq Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the government on Tuesday to avoid politicizing the Iraqi military.

At a news conference in Salahuddin, Iraq, Rumsfeld was asked whether Iraqi officials had given him assurances about continuity in the senior leadership of the Iraqi security forces.

“It’s not so much a matter of continuity as a matter of competence, of capability,” he said in an appearance with Massoud Barzani, who has joined political forces with his former Kurdish rival, Jalal Talabani. “It’s a matter of not causing undue turbulence in the Iraqi security forces and not setting back the important progress that’s been achieved.”

Rumsfeld said Washington hoped to see “highly competent people who are not going to politicize security forces” but will keep to the current strategy of maintaining a U.S. presence until Iraq’s own forces are capable of defeating the insurgents.