anks for that friendship with iraq and our friendship. thank you for organizing this forum. and i want to talk -- i want to take this opportunity to thank the people of the united states, all american forces, who support them president obama's administration and the congress united states congress assistance to our common fight against this. as you say here isis. i welcome this chance to express my view on iraqi's situation. a sunni political leader as one who born of many generations of

muslim fathers and mothers and legislated governor of the people in which is near a city of mosul. that's the largest -- second largest city in iraq. nearly 2 million people now illegal regime. the clear head is the battle to liberate mosul. the second largest city. iraq can wantnot be iraq without muslim. that would be like the united states without chicago or without san francisco. there are key points i want to discuss with you. these points mean success or failure for the liberation of mosul and the world's fight against isis.

success in the battle and just as important, what comes after this, is good. this in addition to the importance of fighting isis are con frequent steps towards national reconciliation in iraq. after 11 years of just talking about reconciliation, but no actual steps taken, the sunni and iraq will no longer be interested in more talk. the sunni need to see actual and concrete steps. i will agree with him most of the time, and outline only these points so we can have your question and a good discussion.

i'm talking about mosul as a model, but i think what i'm talking can be for all the sunni areas. first, the people of mosul are the key to liberate mosul. the mosul people must be shown why. liberation is better for them than the regime of isis. history shows that the people are the reason armies succeed or fail. in a city of nearly 2 million people soldiers, even in thousands, or how well equipped can do only so much. we need the people of mosul to rise up and to help the soldiers combat isis.

with the people rising up against isis, i believe they will. we must give them a vision of what their life would be like after liberation of mosul. in addition, to the support during and immediately after liberation. before i tell you what i believe that the vision should be i want to tell you the planning and work that is going on right now for the liberation of mosul. we have now two training camps. in these camps american canadian and turkish. special forces are training thousands of mosul police and volunteers.

the combat skills and skills they need to have to be in the fight for the liberation of mosul. one of these two camps is for mosul police. the other is for the volunteers who are organize edd organized by commanding officers and the previous army. the army officers want to fight isis. the volunteers are ready to be part of the national guard as soon as the law for this is enacted. but the volunteers are ready to fight as soon as they get weapons. by now, we have thousands of fighters who have graduated from these camps and are ready to

fight. but they don't have weapons. they don't have the weapons they need for the fight, for liberation of mosul from isis. since last january now five months ago, we are still waiting for the promises of weapons that have been met by our government. promises are nice. but is the weapons -- the weapons that they need not the promises. the force that holds mosul after liberation must be trusted by the people of mosul. that means the force must be from mosul and its surrounding town. if these forces can be trusted

by mosul community, the mosul people would be on the side of the liberation and they cannot make a combat into mosul. liberation comes first, of course, but it's the period after liberation that will be decided for people would be watching. people of mosul can survive, and president obama last month pledged $200 million. with this president obama, be on hand immediately after liberation, all would be tied up in baghdad's bureaucracy.

in addition to the training camps, we have taken another route for liberation of mosul. we know liberation is not just a military fight. i organized a forum for sunni muslims in egypt of which -- these muslim schoolers are continuing their work against the archaeology of isis in aed kmoty established. i established a set of sales of the people inside mosul who joined the liberation force if needed. but they have to trust that force also. i have a good working relations with most of the arab tribes in

the mosul area. these tribes would be critical in the liberation of mosul, and i say also these tribes need also to trust the force. whatever work we have done we need to give the people of mosul a different vision than what they had from the previous government in baghdad. the second point the people of mosul want democracy to be for elections. the people of mosul should elect their own representative and not end forced from outside, not by the government in baghdad, not by the extremist shia or sunni, and certainly not be iranian

support ed supported houths of any kind. i personally welcome international observers in this election. this election must be free and without any interference. you may ask what is our vision after liberation? this brings me to my thinker and time point. we need awe topmy as a part of the strong iraq. the hierarchy constitution i want to be clear, i want to keep iraq as unified. and to always follow the constitution of iraq.

the articles under our institution are 119, 120, and 121. these articles explain how the provinces in iraq become a region. we just want to know what our constitution intended for people of a providence. the awe autonomy must be in two sense. remember these words of the iraq institution when you hear anybody or anything from anybody

believing that i want iraq. i believe authority in iraq should be lifted up, but not iraq itself. we need to have a balance in power and authorities in iraq, which would have a double effect. there are sunni and kurds and also protect minorities such as other minority groups. i believe this autonomy will strengthen the unity of iraq. first, geographically by referendum in the province the geographic autonomy the province will be at least --

would have at least fewer effects. this would give the community its own autonomy with its own special constitution. this autonomy would protect minorities within the province. and autonomy will prevent iraq from interfering with the rights of the people. we tried in the past to follow up constitutional steps, but, unfortunately, the prime minister malaki dropped this decision. second stage, i envision the pr vince province, sit down with other

sunni provinces, and their own relation under the umbrella of the iraq institution. in cop collusion i want the people of mosul first we are involved in liberation of their city. second, to have a chance to choose their own representatives. third, to get chance of the referendum according to the iraqi constitution. if people choose the future would be bright. thank you for listening and i will answer your questions and look forward to our discussion. thank you.

[ applause ] >> thank you, both, thank you, governor, and thank you, doctor. those are both terrific presentations. in fact, you managed to cover my first four or five questions so i'm going to dispense with them and that's actually a terrific thing. i want to spend the bulk of my time with you talking about, in particular, governor, what you were talking about in the end, but also what you talk about at the end of your presentation, doctor, about what this future iraq relationship, political relationship might look like, but before i do that, i want to go back to a point that was raised in a terrific presentation. you made the point and governor, feel free to disagree with this if you do but i have the sense you agreed with this and it's the impression that most of washington got, which is the problem is not the prime minister. he wants to do the right thing. that's the impression he left

here in washington knows where iraq needs to go and wants to do it. the problem is not the want. the problem is the how. if that is something that you both agree with, i'd love to get your thoughts on how you believe that the united states might help him to better actually achieve those goals. would you like to start? >> thank you thank you very much. >> this is a very broad question. the answer liberate iraq from isis, and thank you very much. look again, ladies and gentlemen, talking about who inherited a very damaged political security situation and he's trying here, be supportive america and arab-sunni, i agree with this but the government is not implementing according to his government and the parliament, and so some of the stories like

amnesty he talks about six morpt months, for example, and now nothing. and there's other issues, et cetera, so, yes, i agree we should help him and america can help to rebuild the iraqi security forces that i talk about because without building national security forces it means iraq would be controlled totally by militia on the side and isis on the other side. this is the question, the story of arming sunnis. whether arming sunnis divides iraq, the question is, is iraq united now? more than 50% is under the control of isis. we want to bring back to restore united iraq by arming the sunnis, so when we send sunnis and others who want to liberate isis to bring back mosul to iraq, so helping in dismantling militias, bringing back the

state of law accelerating the process of arming iraqi armies and fighters, which could be sunni, according to our suggestion. central government says, look what if we push their weapons to the sunni fighters, and they may pass on the weapons. they pass on the weapons or defeat the iraqi army? you see, so this is not a justification justification. you cannot keep pushing luck on everything. you have to trust people fighting isis. this is a point restructuring security forces, militias, putting all resources of iraqi support in them in fighting isis, presenting a draft of national guard because we agree upon local forces that catch security on the ground, in anbar, and as a local. in the southern province also. south has its own national guard. the problem is the national guard is not mobile yet.

these are issues the americans can help. finally, on composition, america can also work to support because of the crisis of oil now collapsed, very difficult for government to cover all this huge number of people. the story of international strength. >> governor? >> i believe in the -- i think it would not be -- iraq is not united if we want to group and weaken the others. so what we need is to strengthen the sunni group so they can fight isis or else they return to balance the iraqi forces. u.s. can do that. the sunni group, the kurds, and the legal shia group. the constitution. >> following up with a specific

question the process of reconciliation. it was talked about and is clear every iraqi who knows anything about the real situation understands this is critical. does the u.s. have a role to play in fostering that process of reconciliation? again, we see people like you like the prime minister talking about the process of reconciliation. we don't see it happening. should it be done? should the u.s. be doing more? >> real wish for reconciliation in iraq especially when they get the authority, they didn't want to lose it. they want to keep their authority, their power in their hand. there cannot be reconciliation like that. if we are talking about reconciliation, as i said we have to strengthen the other

groups to give them the freedom to choose their representatives, so they will be in balance with the others, and that's what i'm talking about elections, and we need elections which getting all the groups of the sunni, not only me. and others may not be involved in the election, and we'll have all the sunni community inside the political forces. >> before i let you answer governor, if i could follow-up on that. don't you worry if there were elections in iraq at this point in time, that the shia militias capture a huge number of seats? is that a problem? when do we do the elections? >> happens in the shia provinces, but we can also use or change the law, the election law, that each part with a big

list we can get the representative from each portion in iraq. >> if this situation keeps going in iraq, the control of militia, that means they draw the political situation next in all iraq. south shia provinces, sunni provinces. that's why i'm talking about dismantling illegalization and partnership of sunni recop silluation looks like for all iraqis talking about as a position, everyone is singing about it let us make a rapid assessment of the story. from 2010 to now, not from 2005 or so. before the second offer, we met in what's called -- this agreement, there was recop silluation and restoring people and let us assess from 2010

until now and prime minister, speaker, and they are up to 2010, also, i mean, after 2000, so the story's not keep talking shouting, but the story is to implement the agreement. otherwise, if you come to the draft of the program of the dpoft. it is such an excellent one presented to the parliament. the problem that i highlighted here in front of you is the timing. it talks about this reconciliation forces should be, and no arms and groups should be outside the control of the governor, and it mention the the program, and the question is, is it implemented? the answer is no. >> as always in iraq that is the issue. there's no shortage of the right

ideas. >> there's one who is looking for solution. so at least he is adapting his allies that there's a bear in iraq. come to extinguish it. >> thank you. let's move on a little bit, because, again i want to leave time for questions from the add convince as well. i'd like to come to the great issue that's looming ahead of us. it's not the immediate issue, but the issue in front of us is the explosion and whether it's going to be mosul first, but there's app issue that's lying behind it which both of you addressed, which is critical which is the nature of the future iraqi state. a future iraqi state in which all its communities can feel comfortable. we invited you here because we were hoping that you could -- as well as anyone give us a sense of how the sunni community is

thinking about exactly that set of problems. i recognize you can't speak for 6 million sunnis, but i have to ask someone to do that because i can't fit 6 million sunnis in this room. nor would they come. nor would they get visas if we invited them. i'll ask you to act as their surrogates. starting with you, governor, because you covered it in wonderful detail in your remarks. help us to get a sense of what you think that future iraqi state will look like. you spoke today. you spoke in the past about the importance of decentralization of the authority. nevertheless within a strong federal system. now, that sounds exactly right, but, of course, the devil is in the details. help us to understand the details. what kinds of powers are you thinking about that stoubhould be de devolve devolve, and how would that work?

governor, start us off. >> maybe we can get the model. i think the political life -- there's no problems even between the ex-enemies, now they become all offense, and they can solve problems inside their awe topmy, my autonomy, but maybe there's problems within. i think provinces, like i will not say sunni region but maybe it would be happen of the anbar or after that, after negotiation with them, but, anyway, i think we can solve our problems. we can get our security. we can get our suitable political life inside that

province. in baghdad, it would be the final negotiation. it need to be that there's no -- there's not any event or any problems happen from this province to baghdad. they can have reconciliation between their people easy. maybe there's some problems with some parties or some groups of the e shia with those out in mosul. it's more easy to solve that problem in the provinces and we can get, as i said, the model, and i believe that iraq will stay in their province and should until it becomes a federal country which would get its autonomies, allies to, their

problems be inside their province. >> several follow-ups, but i'm going to turn to the doctor first for his overview. >> >> demonstration, calling for a region for occupation by militia, for example, this gives impression not partner. needs real solid confidence building. it needs not only promises, but we have to go into election plan and detail how to restore sunni to bring them back to the political, and they are ready, but no one trusts everyone. not trusting the other, but, i mean all these things are taken by sunni on the institutional

legal background. it ends with illegal constitutional movements from the government side. so this is one. second on the authorities, what sort of politicals and how iraq would look like. in fact, everyone is talking about constitution and implementing constitution, and respecting constitution. constitution, need to clarify that point. there's a central government authorities, there's regional authority, and there's a shared or mixed authorities between the two. respecting and implementing the constitution. >> let me ask the first follow-up starting with you, but asking for your view as well. as you are painfully and perm personally aware, one of the problems with the current federal system is that we've had a corruption of the justice process, and see sunni leaders, present company included have been targeted by the central government using that judicial

system. how would you think about a future iraqi system that prevents that from happening? how do we go about creating an iraqi in which you and others can't be personally targeted by this system? >> all iraqis whether to select to live together to live united in iraq, to respect authorities, now, for sure, there's interference interference. americans, you here can help a lot, and even restore everything. restore. everything is damaged. you have to restructure damaged structures. so restoring iraq back means you have to build again. on the corruption side, in the security institutions part of this totally controlled by my

militia so militia took money, and it's a vicious circle. the challenge is to restore back again the safe. it depend upon how serious iraqis are including us to rebuild iraq otherwise if everyone keep only observing iraq, only keep beating others' participation or promises without implementation, we are not move. >> governor, anything to add on the judicial system? >> i think the corruption and the -- all of that problems may be solved easier if we are near to the people, not far away from the people. now controlling everything from baghdad, they have no concern of what happened in mosul or anbar what the people want. they want to belonging to them, not to follow the problems or

corruption in mosul. that's what happened exactly before the collapse of mosul. the corruption in the army is too much but baghdad did not care with that corruption. they care that the mosul of people must belong to them so i think dividing the authorities, and we can see what -- as i said, the model and dividing the authorities even if there is a problem between some of the leaders of baghdad and there's not not, and the autonomy. >> thank you. governor, i want to shift to another specific aspect of a future iraq that you in particular raised in your

remarks. the krg ought to be a model. that's actually very helpful because i think it's one we can get our hands around right? that's something we can understand. that's a big statement. i want to ask you about a couple specific aspects of it, starting with the military and security side. do you believe as implied that what iraqi-sunni arabs look for in a future iraq is a situation where the military and security forces of the sunni provinces of the sunni regions are separate from the iraqi central army and under that vision, do you think that sunnis would be willing to have iraqi central army units in the sunni provinces, or would they have to be split? just as the krg has one, more responsible for security and military matters in the krg and the central -- the army of the

central government is more or less out of the krg. >> maybe i will have a difference between two securities. >> please. >> the security for the provinces and thus must be managed inside the province or inside the autonomy. there's no need to have interfere from baghdad with the local security in the province. there is also another situation which is the iraqi security and that, of course we need that, the iraqi army to be involved in it, and so we don't like that we have iraqi army even in our provinces. we like to have iraqi army, but this iraqi army must not involve in local security or be involved with the people inside the province. >> so perhaps more division between the ministry of interior

forces and myinistry of defense forces? >> yes. >>ed did eded eded eded eded -- go ahead, please. >> the year 2028 is only talking about the government to call for a federal forces if there is a real threat in a security situation in this province so if the security situation is good local forces with the local police and other provinces provinces, otherwise, to sechbd an army or federal army is not accepted ideas iraq, but also the institution, localized or exactly said how to do it and this is implemented now and it is the governor, only the authorized one who calls for the prime minister to send, so this is the way of connect inging local. >> very helpful. i have to dig down, asking about where the rubber meets the road.

money. do you believe that sunni arabs would envision in this future iraq system, one where the sunni provinces or sunni region or individual sunni regions would have their own budget separate from the federal budget, or would they remain a part of the larger federal budget? again, going back to the krg model where there's a separate budget that simply has a revenue sharing arrangement. governor, please. >> i think the constitution explain that very well, and we have -- we need to get our budget according to the population over the province and or the autonomy so we can follow the constitution and -- >> governor if i can -- having the governor, are there specific items that right now are handled by the federal government that you think are better handled by

the provinces, but the regions, again, thinking about a future iraq in which the sunnis felt more comfortable? >> maybe i will give example for the last year i was the governor of , and according to the institution, they must get 11% of the iraqi budget, but actually, we don't get more than 1%. and that's i think one of the bigger problems you get in the province. >> as it relates to the institution and being minister of finance first of the budget paid directly to the provinces, not regional. what's called in the constitution although it's called regional development budget now, and even if it's called regional development budget, which is investment

budget. i mean, part of the investment have been paid directly to the proper, and they put it -- list the it in the mapping, the other budget is according to the law now. it's part of the central government unified budget. >> if it changes into a region, and if they talk about a budget of the region, which is different from a budget of a province. >> to follow up with that your explanation is you would move up either to a single sunni region or to multiple regions? >> i think all sunnis are talking about now regions on provisional background. >> four different regions. >> this is what happened in mosul. they trusted their representative, the prime minister, and higher elected commission as a region for their

province, but, unfortunately, it was never implemented. >> let me ask you one more question and then i'll open it up to the audience. i'm asking you what i think is a hard question, but maybe social security easy question to answer. one of the differences between the krg and the sunni province or the regions is oil. the k wererg has oil and it's difficult, very difficult but conceivable, and we've seen it happen for baghdad to have a negotiation with the krg over which way the revenue flows, which way the oil flows, and as all of you know, there is not a lot, at least at this moment, of oil in the sunni dominated provinces of iraq. how do you go to iraq and say to them we want you to continue to

give us our share of the total budgets, but we're going to be more independent. we're going to be less reliant? i understand you're against, but i'm asking a practical political question. you know what the reaction is going to be on the other side. how are you going to convince them that this is worth doing for them? doctor, would you like to start? >> we. >> the constitutional -- constitution gives the right to iraqi, and they make their own region, and so calling for a region on a provisional level or what you call -- the constitution, so the constitution, but i mean the constitution on its path includes the right to change any province or region. to be changed into a region is constitutional. the constitution talks about how to distribute wealth throughout

iraq. south or north and west, and this is belonging to all iraqis not a provisional wealth in order to say, look, looking for independence, authorities on the side, age seeking own oil. oil in anbar is for all iraqis, and same is true in mosul. so, i mean, distribution of wealth is constitutional, and constitution said it should be distributed according to population number. not region or province or -- so according to the provision, the population is the same whether it's a province or a region. you have to receive the right from that point and calling for the region is constitutional. what was the province? the idea is to spread the institution, that i keep saying almost always. >> governor? >> i think this same problem is up now in the -- it's not only with the sunni but they want to

be a region, and even they think that they must get more ability from their oil more than other shia -- >> is it their own oil? >> what in the other sides that our provinces even mosul or anbar with -- we have other benefits which make us united not just that -- i believe that if we invest in our benefits now they -- now they know that there's a lot of benefits to be inside iraq and to have negotiation with iraq, even if they have oil or it's not enough for them to protect themselves

to have security to have a good relation with the surrounding country, so it's much benefits that we need each other even in mosul or anbar. >> okay. i'd like to take questions from the add convince. our time is short. what i'm going to do is take a bunch of questions, maybe about six questions and put all of them to our speakers and give them the opportunity to respond collectively to all of them, over whatever ones they'd like to speak to. going around the room, picking up a bunch of questions. the lady over there, keep your questions brief, and, please, do keep them to questions. please. madam? >> hi. >> introduce yourself, identify yourself to the speakers. >> thank you both. i'm kelly jones a refugee officer with homeland security, and there's a lot of discussion of -- by dismantling militias,

and both of you spoke about problems with the militias and if there were a vote people would vote militias in and the ways in which they are currently connected to the government and could you address the -- how to address these problems when trying to dismantle militias in the future? try to keep it brief. >> we'll go back to there. >> good morning, i'm with the rand corporation here in washington. going back to ken's first question about prime minister's programs that he's advocating for and support for them, rather than focus on what the u.s. can do i wonder given that the political forces currently in baghdad seem to be successfully holing down the implementation, what will be the catalyst to see that there's more support for these programs being actual implemented in the future?

>> all the way in the back there. >> i want to know the situation for the christians in iraq and mr. governor, he mention eded a little bit about. i want to know if they are safe and secure in the future, or we are gone from the region? thank you. >> right in front of you, marshall, right there. whoever that is. >> i'm a notary public resident fellow at the council and the question is we're talking about militias, but a big part of it is not proiranian and also has a very fashl stick program. is there a way to cooperate with the groups and use them maybe to bypass the pro-irani militias?

>> recent lely appointed to command. what's the thoughts on that and next steps to take to include the security forces? >> one more. right here in front waiting very patiently. >> thank you very much. i'm with -- i've listened to the stories of two survivors, believe me, one main concern had been accountability gap. basically, you're asking for decent relation, powers the main thing, and i wanted to ask you, is the face of iraq has

become more secular in nature of democracy, and was it more simpler in nature before kmok? part two is that what do you think time frame, when do you anticipate to people of iraq will start creating democracy? thank you. >> group of excellent questions. >> starting with you, please, feel free to address any of all of these. >> yes. when i keep talking about dismantling militia, iraqi law and constitution is talking about integration of militia, but this is talking about the previous militia and with that model of militia, cretes a huge problem. that's why i talk about dismantling, solve the people carrying weapons and fighting now is to open recruitment in

national guard and iraqi army on a personal background not groups so it's not accepting hundreds of thousands to come as a group headed by a leer. they keep obeying their orders. often, recruitment for tens of thousands shia, and it's not that militia person. same is true for the sunnis, would not accept groups to fight outside the constitution or rule of law. this is the dismantling and recruitment on the personal level. i trust he's working, making a change, and we help him -- the question is if now. promise without implementation will come again to give a lecture how it damages the

country, i don't need to come again to say that. i hope that the final picture presented of a good goes on and comes later on billing a national security force is a big goal can be done national by iraqis supported by american. programming, training, equipment, and time is important because you can want lose more time, both on the militia side and isis side. the problem i'm really sorry, i did not mention it because there's much more on liberty. it's human tearian. i did not offer on that point, and he covered it as we discussed yesterday in the topics we cover. being sure that he will cover it make me not focus on it. on the militia side, there are pro-iranian side and national, yes, there's national -- i can't

say there's national militia or national iraqis and mobilization. i agree with you. i mean, not all the popular mobilization, but definitely under popular mobilization the criminal militias, so we talk about dismantling the criminal groups, those committed to crimes. others accepted as part of national guard, but, again to my suggestion, is on a personal level, not as groups with thousands of people who belong to one of the clerics or religious man to be integrated, and because at the enof thed of the day, it's fill with loyalty, would not be to them or the state or to the law. so, yes, we can get benefits of the shias fighting definitely. i think this brings me back in the story of sunni participation. if it is our share and governments, it means we get nothing in iraq.

we are talking about 1200 regimes in iraq. if if this is over 1,000 or or .001, that means -- still alive in spite of the problem. yes, they commented and you may see democracy but is democracy fragile? threatened? is it really a solution? yes, it is really a solution. is it an option? it is an option. are iraqis looking? yes. but it needs to be perfected, deeply rooted by americans. thank you very much. >> governor please. last word. >> i just want to talk about mobilization. it's just the people who -- the wish to fight and they are just a people, the shia who fight, and we know that most of them

are good and want to protect iraq, but in this, militia, inside that public mobilization who are organized, equipped, and trained from outside iraq, and, of course, we see that with you. there's people who are not organized and other groups are organized and equipped and they will get more by the weapons that they get to fight. i'm sure as soon as the struggle between these militia and the sunni provinces stop, even by this militia overcome, help all the area, all would stop the problems will appear between inside the militia and inside that she that provinces.

and that is -- even prime minister knows that problem. they would face the problem and between that militia would be more than the struggle would be with the solution after this. so we are not going with this with if we work outside of the constitution, outside the law, we are not going to help iraq. we are going for more problems, of course, now there's shia sunni problems, but in the future, it's other problems. when i talk about the constitution, if we have the autonomy, that means we have a constitution, and even more money, we are talking about

iraq but they are big in ninevah. for example, this will be more than 10,000 autonomy of province, so they need to get inside that constitution, and we need to have negotiation with them from now to right that constitution and to put their lives -- all the minorities so it would be in the step of creating the autonomy. i don't think he's superman. if he didn't have office or his

car, so how he will fight to free mosul? talking about one person is nothing. we need to know what they would give him, what they would give him because divisions ready to be in his command to fight or not. so i didn't follow but i want to see what's really there, and so now i can see ulall the world helps mosul and actual steps was done within the proposal of where krg is there. between the central government force and mosul, there's more than 200 kilometers and there's

no divisions or there's no army to reach from that side so the rk krg is about 20 kilometers from mosul, and we believe the work would be from krg more than baghdad. about democracy in iraq i think the problem is the law connections. yes, there's an economy but what happened is they give the authority in that law in the big list not for the people, and that happen from the beginning. after 2003. so those people or those guys who are controlling the authority of after 2003 have their -- they can force their people, and up until now we see

that, it's not real represent if representative, and we know there's representative to the parliament parliament, and, of course, we can prevent some parties and accept the others. >> one last word? >> yes, very short. dismantling militia will end in a national iraqi army that zephyrs partnership with america to defeat extremism and incysting upon proliferation of militia would only result in iranian revolutionary guard model, which i don't think that's the model for iraq. thank you. >> well, of course, this is not going to be the last word on the subject, but i think that our speakers today have given you a tremendous start in understanding both the problems of iraq taed and the potential solutions for iraq in the future. please join me in thanking the

governor and doctor. [ applause ] here are a few of the book festivals we're covering this spring on c-span2's book tv. visiting maryland for live coverage with former congressman tom davis and former senior adviser to president obama and them we'll close out may in new york city where the publishing industry showcases upcoming books, and in june live for the printers row little fest like our three hour live in-depth program with prettyulitzer prize and taking your phone calls on

c-span2's book tv. >> iconic women, their stories in first ladies, the book. >> that he did save the portrait of washington, which was one of the things that endeared her to the entire nation. >> whoever could find out where francis was staying, what she was wearing, what she was doing, what she looked like who she was seeing, that was going to sell papers. >> she took over the radio station and runs it. how do you do that. >> she did it. >> she exerted enormous influence because she would move a mountain to ensure her husband was protected. >> first ladies now a book, published by public affairs, looking inside the personal life of every first lady in american history, based on original interviews from c-span's first lady series, learn about their lives, ambitions, families, and unique partnerships with their presidential spouses. first ladies presidential historians on iconic lives of five presidential women filled with stories of women who

survived the scrutiny of the white house sometimes at a great personal cost and often changing history. c-span's first ladies is an entertaining inspiring read now available as a hard cover or e-book through your favorite bookstore on online book seller. captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2008 captioning performed by vitac