forces in iraq, general ray odierno. i talked with him earlier today from baghdad. general, welcome. >> how are you, jim? >> lehrer: just fine, sir, thank you. how confident are you that the political leaders of iraq can now peacefully form a new government? >> well, what i'm confident about is that they know that they're going to have to form a government using several different coalitions because not one coalition will have a majority. and so they know that they're going to have to work together to build this coalition. they know that. i think they'll work towards that over time. >> lehrer: how long do you think it will take, sir? >> well, it's unclear. i think it depends on the final results. if they are close, it will probably take a little bit longer. if someone has a bigger lead, it might happen a little bit quicker. but i believe we're talking about a couple of months. >> lehrer: a couple of months. >> that's correct, sir. >> lehrer: there's been a suggestion that the people of iraq are really getting the hang of democracy. in other words, the ordinary folks

martha: well, he is the top american commander in iraq, general ray odierno, and he's confident the u.s. will meet its september deadline to withdraw all combat forces from that country. it has been an incredible journey through this war in iraq and our own melanie wilkes got to spend the day with the general and covered a wide range of topics, in all aspects of his work, right down to what's on his ipod. melanie is streaming live from baghdad with more. >> reporter: big changes from the u.s. military in the next five months, as they plan a rapid drawdown, and they are ending their combat mission. when i spent the day with general odierno, he was most passionate when he talked about the troops who have served here. >> general ray odierno starts with a morning briefing but a conference room is no substitute for firsthand knowledge. most days the general is out in the field. today, visiting a joint u.s. arab checkpoint near kirkuk, planning for reducing u.s. forces from 95,000, to 50,000 by september 1st. >> this could be more burden on the iraqi army and police to do more. >> he's drawin

today, top american military commander ray odierno called on political parties to "refrain from inflammatory rhetoric or action". for more, we go to ryan crocker, a former career diplomat who served as u.s. ambassador to iraq until last year. he's now the dean of the george h.w. bush school of government at texas a&m university. and joost hilterman, deputy program director for the middle east and north africa at the international crisis group. he was in iraq during the elections. ambassador crocker, i'll start with you. is it a surprise that prime minister maliki's coalition failed to win? what explains it? >> i think it's been clear for some time that this would be a very close contest. the fact that just two seats separate maliki and alawi is an indication of that closeness. and in a sense it doesn't matter that much who is two seats up or two seats down. there is going to be a long, difficult contentious process of forming a government. and at this point there's no way of telling who is going to wind up in the prime minister's chair. >> reporter: mr. hilter-- hiltea did-- remind us of mr.

the general ray odierno speaking today on "the early show" said the iraqi military performed superbly in yesterday's mostly peaceful election. the plan to remove combat troops from the country is proceeding on schedule. he added every sign points to iraqis being able to form a new government. defense secretary robert gates is in afghanistan checking on the progress of the war there. meanwhile, 30,000 additional u.s. forces are now arriving, most will be in place by summer. stanley mcchrystal says that any heavy fighting in canada are will wait until the troops are ready. -- ken the harkandahar will wail the troops are ready. >> over 1000 middle and high school students entered this year's studentcam documentary contest. we will announce the 75 winners on march 10. host: former epa head had and governor of new jersey, christine todd whitman is with us to talk about energy. you are the co-chair of the clean and safe energy coalition. the president announced federal loan guarantees for the southern company to build the first new nuclear reactor in the country in some 30 years. also, the