the course of action in iraq has been that we only gave to the iraqization, iraq's security forces, iraq police, iraq economic and political development. that was the basis on which we construction could take place. that was what a just peace involved. we only came to that later and not shortly after the invasion. i regret this. i cannot take personal responsibility for everything that went wrong. i did a paper to the americans just before the war was declared that said these things had to be planned for. and that we needed international organizations to be involved. >> we have anticipated that the united nations would do exactly as you said. you have a lot of experience and organizations like the world bank. but we were not able to do that because we could not get the support of the united nations. you can have an international agency, but if you don't have the legitimacy that allows it to operate, then you are stuck. that was the situation we found ourselves in. >> but the united nations came in after a resolution in may. it is true to say that the postwar planning -- because we now kn

the u.s. invasion of iraq? >> the decision was finally made by the cabinet and then by the house of commons -- >> when was it -- when did you become aware -- >> at the last minute in march, and right up until the last minute i was hopeful, as i think the whole country were, that we would reach a diplomatic resolution of these issues. by the weekend -- >> but that was the decision to go to war. i talking about when did you become aware of the u.k.'s support of the u.s. invasion of one was to take place? >> that we would support the u.s. invasion only at the last minute when we were deciding that it was not possible for the diplomatic route to work any further. i remember going on television, i think it was the frost program the sunday before the parliamentary vote and the day before the cabinet decision on this matter, and even at that stage, we were hopeful that the diplomatic rates could work, but even as that stage, we were also worried that the interventions of the united patients were prevented a resolution

on the needs that we have in iraq and afghanistan. we have provided all of the military operational helicopter assets needed for success and i hope the committee could note we have done everything we can to make the helicopter provision available including buying from other countries. >> yes, indeed but, it was suggested there was a 38% gap i think between what our needs and actual provision, so... >> talking about helicopters. >> yes. >> in helicopters we have a fleet -- a set of more than 500 and ordered 22 new chinook -- >> from the period of '04-'05, when the helicopter needs were growing. >> i'm telling you what the ministry of defense accounts committee told us in '04. >> the ministry of defense accounts committee gave me the number, for time i would like to move quickly onto questions of the costs of reconstruction. you said before lunch that you were concerned about the aftermath of the war, looking at the war, in... coming up in the early months of 2003. and i think you said to us and i'm quoting, we couldn't persuade the amer

the sons of iraq included 100,000 people. okay, so that was larger than any estimate that was ever done of the sunni nationalist insurgency. and so it represents the book of the insurgency in their base, and thought of population, you know, the auxiliary and underground of the insurgent was included and not. so it's critical that they be incorporated into both the security services and the political and economic lives of the structure. the constitution has to be revised. they have to come to agreement about the federal nature of power in iraq. and in fact, more iraqis, to me we need to understand, iraq is that essentially state system for a long time and a more centralized model than it currently has in the constitution. it also is more secular than many people realize. yes there is an islamic horse into the population but they've got to fundamentally come around to a political structure. can they do it? well, they did do a very importantly in the provincial power salt which was the conventional and regional powers and i thoug

the course of action in iraq has been that we only gave to the iraqization, iraq's security forces, iraqce, iraq economic and political development. that was the basis on which we construction could take place. that was what a just peace involved. we only came to that later and not shortly after the invasion. i regret this. i cannot take personal responsibility for everything that went wrong. i did a paper to the americans just before the war was declared that said these things had to be planned for. and that we needed international organizations to be involved. >> we have anticipated that the united nations would do exactly as you said. you have a lot of experience and organizations like the world bank. but we were not able to do that because we could not get the support of the united nations. you can have an international agency, but if you don't have the legitimacy that allows it to operate, then you are stuck. that was the situation we found ourselves in. >> but the united nations came in after a resolution in may. it is true to say that the postwar planning -- because we now know th

today's voting makes it clear that the future of iraq alone to the people of iraq. the election was organized and administered by the iraqi independent highet electoral commission with critical support from the united nations. hundreds of thousands of iraqis served as pull station workers and as observers. as expected, there were some incidents of violence as al qaeda and irain iraq tried to dt the process by murdering those who were exercising their democratic rights. overall, the level of security, the provision of these destabilizing a taattacks were solved by iraqi security forces. i want to extend my admiration for our civilians and men and women in uniform who continue to support our iraqi partners. this election is also a tribute to all those who have served and sacrificed in iraq for the last seven years, including the many who have given their lives. we are mindful that this is the beginning, not the end, of the long constitutional process. the ballots must be counted. complaints must be heard. and iraq has a process in place to investigate and adjudicate an

policy i think the iraq war is stealing that negative. e are still in the midst of a selfish preparation trying to correct mistakes that were made particularly from 2003 to 2006. we can debate this but i think we are still trying to take a sad song and make it better inside of iraq and i think we need to recognize that. on several fronts to u.s. national security which is the core focus we look at our americans more secure and are they see first offered on many accounts. first and foremost on terrorism i was in afghanistan recently and i know the tactics and technology. these things i think were enhanced and developed in a light training ground that simply did not exist before. i'm not for giving saddam hussein should have stayed around. just the way we handled the post saddam transition i think opened the door to bigger problems and a spread of the threat for the u.s. national security interest. iran which was discussed in the context of iraqi politics and maybe we will talk about it and build more but i think iran is growing influence of

forces now numbering 95,000 the gear must withdrawal from iraq. we will talk to two men critical to overseeing the operation. we have jim pills, the general command. he is helping to decide what to keep and what to give to allies and what to give away. later, john johns, the assistant secretary of defense will talk about the maintenance operation for maintaining order in the country after u.s. leaves. welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> you have a job of withdrawalling all of the gear. what have you pulled out? how much have you pulled out? how much more do you have to go? will you make your deadline? >> a complicated question. the answer to the last part is yes. we will make our deadline. our command headed by general dunwoody set up the task force in control of the central command. when the general says a piece of gear can be brought out of iraq, it goes through a vetting process that many folks get to look at to see if it is needed in iraq in another unit or another command or can it be given back to the u.s. for other troops. this process is

troops in iraq. the obama administration plans to withdraw all combat troops by the end of this august and the remaining forces by the end of 2011. >> lehrer: two perspectives now on sunday's election. feisal istrabadi has served as iraq's deputy ambassador to the united nations. he is now a visiting law professor at indiana university. brian katulis was on the national security council staff in the clinton administration and is now a senior fellow at the center for american progress, a washington think tank. first, what's your best guess as to what's behind the bombs and who's doing it? >> well, this is always occurred in iraq whenever we've had significant events. we've had... whether it's electionstor referendum on the permanent constitution, et, there are interested voices or individuals interested in iraq and outside iraq, unfortunately, in disrupting the process. the government always says it's al qaeda and the ba'athists. whether that's the case or whether there's also a national... an internal in

>> it's the iraq -- the office that deals with iraq and nea. >> so they are the ones that decide on the people? >> they are involved for staffing in iraq, yes. >> who makes the decision? that's all i'm asking. do you need if i ask that? they make recommendations and it's by the assistant secretary and it was by special envoy james satterfield was involved in those -- >> but who decides, their numbers, their people who decides? there must be -- >> who's responsible overall for the staffing numbers for civilians? >> yeah. who makes the decision for iraq? >> i'll have to give you that answer because i'm not personally involved. >> but you -- your office is at least nominally responsible for the coordination of the activities that we've been talking about today; is that not true? we are responsible for doing this going forward. for doing this going forward. >> okay. but going forward we're going to draw down there, that's forward. >> excuse me, going forward in future operations. not current operations. mechanisms that are established to deal with iraq starting before 2003. and our office w

>> again, sir, the drawdown in iraq is on pace. given the dcaa audit and the fact that general odierno has said that we would drawdown by 5%, the actions, i believe, that ongoing are prudent. now, i am not an auditor. i am an operational logistician. and requirements in the flowing battlefield, a floyd era special one that is drawn down are very, very difficult to put your arms around. so i would say to you, sir, that i will take this for the record and get back to you with the response from amc on what our actions are for the audit. but i will tell you, sir, the situations on the ground are somewhat fluid, as you well know. >> i appreciate that entirely, but you're telling me that agency has a comprehensive plan to drawdown contracts and contractors, in a single biggest contractor in theater is kbr, 15,000 direct tires, 35,000 other people. i would think if an auditor would tell you there's a chance to say $193 million, that someone in the system would feel compelled to respond. i'm disappointed that the army has not. we had the lo

. >> lehrer: then, the commander of u.s. forces in iraq, general ray odierno, talks about the elections, the conflict, and americans' perceptions of what it's like for the troops. >> i don't think they understand what it takes for these young men and women to operate in this environment. they have done extremely well, balancing non-violence and violence, having to be able to determine who is bad and who is good. >> ifill: political and sectarian tensions collide in nigeria-- a look at the latest cycle of violence. >> lehrer: and one for the record books-- judy woodruff looks at the university of connecticut's women's basketball team. >> it's pretty remarkable. i am probably ... tonight at some point i'll sit back and think, wow, that's a lot of wins. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? everyd

for the sake of iraq. you talk about the present and future influence of ahmad chalabi, if there is any? >> the plan has nine lives. i think it has been in i lot of the papers, so i -- in a lot of the papers, so i won't repeat the details of that. again, diplomatic intervention was required before those 500 people were perjuried -- purged from the electoral rolls. it is important that you get full reputation across the iraqi spectrum so you can have multisectarian political building that is neeted for the end game. it is a parliamentary system, and this is absolutely critical. so i am very concerned, a, that it happened, and b, that we were not more on top of it and did more to walk the cat back. and i think that we really do -- this is one thing. behind-the-scenes, petraeus and crocker worked intensively with malaki. the general is an able general, but he doesn't have that political intuition and maeuverability. he's not as ad event in that world of maneuvering. i think we have suffered at a critical time

the constitutionally elected government of iraq is going to stay. ing to be overthrown so they have an interest in shutting down for insiders. they have an interest not helping groups try to undermine the state instead syria has an interest in consolidating relations with iraq and these groups they allow freedom to run around to aggravate relations and so they don't have an interest in that. >> thank you. again, thank you for your service and i commend the obama administration for deciding to send the investor in the diplomatic front. we wish you the very best. >> thank you mr. donner. senator rogers. >> i appreciate the time you gave me yesterday. i have to point or two questions. one on what we were just talking about. are there not still a large number of iraqi refugees in syria? >> senator, the numbers vary. the syrian government has said that the number is up around a million. i have seen recent figures from the united nations high commission on refugees which says the number of registered iraqi refugees are about 250,000. that estimate is proba

the syrians in iraq have an active embassy. n addition, they have provided assistance, weaponry, and other resources to shia extremist militias. they continue to do that. they exert continuous direct pressure on some of the iraqi political parties. they actually get quite involved in it. their goal, as best i can tell, is to have a government which is largely dominated by one particular sect, at least at the senior level. i do not think, frankly, that the syrians sure that objective. i don't think their interest, as they perceive it, is the same peri. the iraqis that are in serious are absolutely not shia. they are sunnis and they are not islamists. the push seems to be for a strong government that would ensure the unity of the state. they are not enamored of the idea of a more decentralized federal iraq. the two countries, iran and syria on this issue of iraq, do not share an eye to eye agreement on what is best for iraq. for the united states, we want iraqis to make these decisions. we are very encouraged by the elections. thi

everyone talked about the need to understand iraq for the sake of iraq. can you talk a little bit about the president and future influence of how much will it be if there is any. >> the man has nine lives politically. yeah, i think it's been in a lot of the papers so i won't repeat the details of that, but the problem is and again i think earlier diplomatic intervention was required before those 500 people were purged from the electoral rose to be able to run for candidates. and again this is critical that you get in this parliament finally full representation across the iraqi political spectrum so then you can have the kind of multisite variants coalition building that will produce some legislation that's required for the endgame. i mean, the parliamentary system and this is absolutely critical. and so i am very concerned and that it happened and be that we were not more on top of it and did more to walk the cat back. and i think that we really do -- this is one thing behind the scenes, you know, petraeus and crocker worked intensively with malik he and g

, the region of iraq, has been a risk swell. -- risk as well. >> mr. -- on march 18, 2003. that they were the link between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, which constituted what he said a fundamental assault on our way of life and that -- regimes the w.m.d. extreme terrorist groups with the possibility of the two coming together rented what he called a real -- represented a real and present danger. he made similar points in january to the inquiry. did you see a real and present danger of this kind coming from iraq in 2003? >> i think we're dealing with this post cold war world. after the end of the cold war, and the expectation that we would have peace and that the instabilities that existed because of the cold war were over, we found that there were a number of states and then we found that there were a number of non-state terrorists that were preparing to cause huge instability around the world. we will be seen as a post cold war era where you had terrorism like iraq and the relation to iran and kuwait. in my view, the world community is j

the policies are so modest. definitely rougher tactics. for instance, if you look at iraq right now, i think it's very hard to break down different countries in the region and work -- look, even if you were able to look at lebanon or look at iraq, i'll stick to those two countries in particular and work on the different issues in those two countries, you have a lot of regional actors who have a vested interest in what's going on. right now in iraq it seems that the syrians and saudis have made some sort of deal along with the iranians over prime minister al-maliki. so how do you sort of close down this one society and say now we're going to look at lebanon? what you need to do is play fairly rough with neighbors like the syrians, like the iranians, perhaps the saudis who have generally been a fairly positive influence in lebanon, up until recently at any rate. so i think these things are very, very difficult. again, i don't think they're modest, i think it's extremely ambitious, and that, i guess, would be, that would be one of my issues. if we understand exactly how ambit

it's like trying to evaluate the iraq war on the day the tanks crossed the kuwaiti board near iraq. it looks good but this tremendously complicated thing. more complicated than the iraq war. and it could go good or bad. i mean the good side obviously is the coverage. the bad side is people like me is the sense of fiscal risk involved. and i think that was underlined this week by two events. one the cbo came out with their results, their predictions of where the budget deficit will be without health care in ten years from now. and will have gone from 40% of gdp, of public debt to 90% in ten years. that's just cataclysmic. and then in the short term this week we have three bond issuings where the government is issuing debt three days in a below and-- row and it's going badly. people are nervous about u.s. government debt. in fact corporate debt is seen as less risky than government debt that is just a straw in the wind that the spending entailed in a lot of things, not just this is going to be a real issue. and i respect that come november, health care is a huge historic thing. but i

even opponents of the war like harbor boxer all said iraq had wmd. this was a consensus of the intelligence community shared broadly throughout the government under clinton, shared broadly under bush and widely through the western intelligence communities. the preponderance of evidence was that he had wmd. in fact there are 100 demo rats who voted for the war resolution, 149 who opposed it. 67 stand up on the house of the florida senate and said saddam had wmd. if you want to say bush lied and you have to assume everyone of those light including ted kennedy and barbara boxer. he had lots of material. we found 500 tons of yellowcake, uranium yellowcake. we found biological and chemical delivery systems. we found tens of thousands of artillery shells and delivery vehicles that contained chemical weapons that had raided over time. but we didn't find wmd operative and usable which was what we feared. in fact is we broached baghdad, the third infantry approaches back that, we hear chatter on the radio from the iraqi saying where we going to get permission

we must let the strategy work and achieve the success like we had in iraq. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from ohio is recognized. mr. kucinich: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker. now i'd like to yield a minute to the gentleman from florida, another florida colleague, mr. rooney, a member of the armed services and judiciary committees. the speaker pro tempore: how long? ms. ros-lehtinen: one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. rooney: first i want to acknowledge and thank congressman buche disturb bue chair -- bue chairy and duncan for their service. i hear from many directly about the progress being made and the need for the continued support of this congress. it's for that reason i will vote no on this resolution. withdrawal now would destabilize that area of the world and create a vacuum for troor. groups like al qaeda and the taliban wi

even opponents of the war like barbara boxer all said that iraq had wmd. this was a consensus of the intelligence community shared broadly throughout the government, sure probably to the government under clinton and bush and shared widely to western intelligence communities. and the preponderance of the evidence was that he had wmd. so in fact their 110 democrats who vote for the war resolution. 149 who oppose it. 110, 67%% on the 4000 senate and say saddam had wmd. if you want to say bush lied to have to say everyone of those people lied including people like that kennedy and barbara boxer who oppose the resolution. we now know that he didn't have it. we found he had 500 times uranium yellowcake. we found tens of thousands of artillery shells and other delivery vehicles that had contained biological and chemical weapons that had degraded over time. but we didn't find wmd operative and usable, which is what we feared. in fact, as we approach baghdad, the third itroaches baghdad, we are chatter of the radio from the iraqi scene when are we going to get permi

more people have died, more vietnam vets have died from suicide and died in the iraq war. that is what these wars are doing to our society. these are our children. it is time to take care of them and bring them home. but support the resolution on the floor. to four minutes to the chair of the house armed services committee, the gentleman from missouri, mr. skelton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. skelton: mr. speaker, have we forgotten, have we forgotten what happened to america on 9/11? have we forgotten who did it? have we fore goten those who protected and gave them a safe -- forgotten those who protected and gave them a safe haven? let me speak in favor of those men and women who wear the uniform today that are doing something about it. i'm so proud of them. every american should be proud of them and their professionalism, their devotion to duty, their patriotism. thus, i rise in strong opposition to this ill-timed resolution that threatens to undermine the recent gains by u.s. forces and our afghan and coalition partners. six

also about the war in iraq but it applies to war as well. she said critics of the war have said since the beginning of the conflict that americans still strangely complacent about overseas wars being waged by minorities in their name will enevidentably come to a point where they see they have to have a government that provides services at home or one that seeks empire across the globe. and we should remember, madam speaker, that even general petraeus said we should never forget that afghanistan has been known as the graveyard of empires. our constitution does not give us the power or the right to run another country. and that's what we've been doing. it should have come as no surprise, madam speaker, that president karzai of afghanistan told abs recently that the -- abc news recently that the u.s. needs to stay there 10 or 20 years. he needs our money and he wants to stay in power. but listen to what columnist george will has said. he has changed his position and written about afghanistan that the budget will not support an expansion there, t

>> it's the iraq -- the office that deals with iraq and nea. >> so they are the ones that decide on thepeople? >> they are involved for staffing in iraq, yes. >> who makes the decision? that's all i'm asking. do you need if i ask that? they make recommendations and it's by the assistant secretary and it was by special envoy james satterfield was involved in those -- >> but who decides, their numbers, their people who decides? there must be -- >> who's responsible overall for the staffing numbers for civilians? >> yeah. who makes the decision for iraq? >> i'll have to give you that answer because i'm not personally involved. >> but you -- your office is at least nominally responsible for the coordination of the activities that we've been talking about today; is that not true? we are responsible for doing this going forward. for doing this going forward. >> okay. but going forward we're going to draw down there, that's forward. >> excuse me, going forward in future operations. not current operations. mechanisms that are established to deal with iraq starting before 2003. and our office wa

we won the war in iraq years and years ago facing the fourth largest army in the entire world. we swept through iraq and we got the sdamsdam out. we won and now -- saddam hussein out. we won and now we can go home. we should have left a long time ago. what's happening in afghanistan and iraq is not a war. it's a foreign occupation. you can read the constitution from beginning to end and you find nothing in the constitution that permits a foreign occupation, much less one that goes on for almost a decade. with you simply can't afford these wars anymore, both in the price of money and in the price of blood. i'd like to call your attention to a report in "the new england journal of medicine" dated january 31, 2008. this report says that 15% of all the troops that serve in iraq return with permanent brain damage. that's right, permanent brain damage. here's some of the symptoms described. a loss of consciousness, general poor health, missed work days, medical visits, and a high number of post concussive symptoms. -- postconcussive symptoms. later on on page 459, nearly 15% of soldie

>> yeah, who makes the decision for iraq? >> i will have to get you that answer because i'm not personally involved. >> but, your office is at least nominally responsible for the coordination of the activities that we have been talking about today. is that not true? >> we are responsible for doing this going forward, for doing this going forward. >> okay, but going forward we are going to draw down there. that is forward. >> excuse me, going forward in future operations.com operations. mechanisms were established to deal with iraq starting before 2003. and our office created in 2004 because it was recognized by late 2003. >> i understand all that. who in the state usaid latch up is doing the coordination to take over the roles that dod is currently doing in iraq? >> i can get an answer for you. i don't have the answer right now. >> ambassador herbst, you mentioned in your testimony that the pace of hiring is slow. why is that? what is the long pole in the tent? are you competing with the political mafia, the econ mafia, the ma

at the end of the iraq war, we -- the run up to the iraq war, we did a pitiful job of it. we bought off on the white house intelligence that saddam hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. they should complain about us being not aggressive enough. >> we have one last clip. "60 minutes" -- general mcchrystal. this is only about 1.5 minutes. >> good general is up for 30 a.m. and out the door at 5:00 p.m. for his morning run through the buildings and trailers. this is his idea of leisure time. >> how many miles is it? >> i run an hour. it is not as many miles as it used to be. >> in another life, he could have been a month. -- monk. >> it is the lap of luxury. >> what else do you need? >> it is functional and comfortable. you get very used to it. you have what you have and that is all you need. one thing that you missed his family. besides that, it is pretty much perfect. >> he lived like this for five years as part of a unit that captured saddam hussein. they tracked down other infamous terrorists and called in airstrikes to kill them. being a general didn't stop him f

and i think that will help them in the long term to develop iraq as a sovereign nation. >> turn the pageere. i find this one fascinating. internet subscribers in iraq. before the war, saddam hussein had a tight grip on the country. about 4,500 people had access to the internet. 1.6 million people now in iraq. that can be a great bonus in free speech. is it a problem at all in this political environment where you have the harsh competition? >> i think it's important. think freedom and free speech put a checks and balances on the process. iraqis are learning about that. it is difficult. it's a difficult learning curve. but we find it to be extremely positive. they have access to international media. you have access to the internet. you have access to a lot of of did rent kinds of information. and i think it helps to shape iraq for the future and will help to push iraq to the future. >> on our new set, i do hope in the months ahead, you get a chance to come home for a few days and see your world champion new york yankees. it pains me a bit to say that. but i know you'd like to see a ball ga

the korean war through a final victory but negotiated a settlement. and then i'd fast forward to june 11, 2004, where i was waiting sitting ogo into iraq the next day and then muqtada al-sadr said with english closed caption say they will leave iraq the same way they left vietnam, the same way they left lebanon, the same way they left mogadishu. that's the inspiration of not only our enemies of al qaeda in iraq and around the world, it's the inspiration for awful our enemies around the world and it was the inspiration for osama bin laden when he ordered the attack on the united states on september 11, 2001. we cannot -- we cannot lose our world. when we engage in an operation, we got to push it through success. and in fact that legacy of lebanon, vietnam and mogadishu has been put to rest by a victory in iraq, a victory that would not have been achieved if the people that brought these debates to the floor 44 times in the 110th congress, resolutions that were designed to under fund, underfund or undermine our troops. now we have a victory in iraq that's being claimed by this administration who opposed it back then. i don't trust the judgment of people

to protest the war in iraq. about 2,000 people gathered at the white house yesterday on the 7th anniversary of the iraq war. the numbers grew through the streets of ashington and the message was to get american troops out of iraq and afghanistan. >> the iraqis have had several elections and it's time to bring all of the troops out of iraq and back home safely. >> i firmly believe war is not the answer. we can't do this. >> now the protestors came from all over the country. this anti-war protest was smaller than in recent years. >>> two baltimore police officers are recovering this morning after being shot during a routine traffic stop. well it happened just after midnight. the driver pulled out a gun and started shooting as the officers approached the car. one officer was hit in the face and the other in the arm. both are in serious but stable condition. the suspect was killed during returned fire. >>> a disturbing find in the anacostia. a body pulled out of the water. it was found yesterday afternoon south of th

it continues the operations in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan. re was a request of $2.80 billion to support our humanitarian operations in haiti. the committee has not had an opportunity to review this matter, but we will do so over the coming weeks. to review the defense and international portion of the supplemental request, the committee is pleased to receive testimony from the secretary of state and secretary of defense, hillary clinton and robert gates. it is good to see you. we look forward to your responses to the questions we have. over nine years ago, in response to the 9/11 attacks, our nation embarked on a mission to rid afghanistan of the taliban and al-qaeda and to work to ensure the security and stabilization in the region. once we entered iraq, many believe our efforts in afghanistan were shortchanged. we only now refocus on our primary missions -- the defeat of al-qaeda and regional stability. our renewed effort and focus, we have improved the strategy and we hope to be unable to restore regional stability and begin withdrawing our

i would like to rename it the "untruth about iraq war." mr. rove, i have a question to you about is i totally disagree with you on the statement that you say that the only people we tortured were the high-valued detainees or whatever. because it's a proven fact in the documentary called "iraq for sale" that it was done by contracts all over in iraq and afghanistan. >>>> guest: i disagree 37 our laws do not allow tortures and these enhanced interrogation techniques were designed to get cooperation but within the limits of our laws and international commitments. look, i appreciate he doesn't agree with me on iraq. but again i find it hard to believe she's even read the book. read the book. all i ask is a fair reading. we can have a responsible disagreement about it. these sort of i want to retitle the book without having read it striked me as a little short minded. >> host: could she have that dialogue with you on your web site? >> guest: i'd say on facebook page and karl rove.com where i accept e-mails. if people are rude, it goes to the trash.

iraq by september 1st, of this year. it is obviously not a draw-down required by the status of forces agreement with iraq, it is a good goal, but i'm sure you would say, it would be -- would be the first to say we don't want to arbitrarily go to it if we think there is significant risk of reversal, as a result. so, give me your sense at this moment of whether we're going to be able to get down to the 50,000 by september 1st. >> i think we will be able to do that, senator. i think that in fact we may reconfigure the force a bit, over original what we thought it looked like four months ago or so, we're constantly tinkering with it and we may want to keep an additional brigade headquarters as an example and slim out some of its organic forces and some of the other organic forces elsewhere, headquarters matter, in these times, because they are the element of engagement and if indeed we think there is a particularly fragile situation, say, in a certain area, in the north, then we might do that, and that is something that we are looking at, but we still believe that we will be able, to stay on track to get down to that 50,000 fi

the iraq war had not happened. we had not gone into afghanistan. we're not talking about the iranians building a nuclear weapon. we were worried about the north koreans. i will give you that. but 10 years seems to be a really long time in days when you talk about the state of the world. 10 years from now, what will we be talking about that we are not even thinking about now? >> there are some people thinking about it, but probably not enough. i know the administration is working on this problem i started out my professional career working on nuclear arms control. the time was the height of the cold war. we have improved the situation massively. we are down to 5000 or 6000 apiece. what we will face some time, five years or 10 years, i do not know of that is some use of a nuclear weapon somewhere. i do not know where. i am not saying that it is going to necessarily be any major city or cause a complete catastrophe. but the technology is improved. the number of loose nuclear weapons charged -- is still out there. it does not give high priority, despite

surge was the inflection point in iraq. d that there were some off-shoots there that would probably be lumped in the surge category but i think if you peel it back a little bit more, there's a little finer point that we could make that i do think has direct application it off afghanistan. -- application of afghanistan. i think it's important to look at president maliki's basra moment. when the decision was made as i understand -- and i'm not an iraq expert but as i understand largely without any u.s. knowledge ahead of the decision, that president maliki sent a significant force into basra. that indicated in many ways that you had a leader that was willing to craple with the hardest part of the problem and instill a certain amount of legitimacy among the iraqi people about their particular president. i think in many ways we're still awaiting a hamid karzai moment. we've not yet seen it and it might be a good inflection point should one occur. secondly and directly related to the surge it's not so much the number of troops th

everyone talked about the need to understand iraq for the sake of iraq. can you talk a little bit about the president and future influence of other chalabi as there is any. >> the man has nine lives, politically. i think it's been in a lot of the papers so i won't repeat the details of that, but the problem is and again i think earlier diplomatic intervention was required before those 500 people were purged from the electoral roll to be able to run for candidates. .. >> that's not a criticism. it's just his personality or he is not as adept are comfortable in that world of maneuvering. and i think we have suffered as a result at a very radical time. but ultimately it is of the iraqi's who have to come around to programs these deals, and maybe they will get through a painful tree that may involve some return to war. i was a little concerned about the u.n. envoys kind of hands-off bit where he said let's let the iraqi's sorted out. there's just some deep cleavage is in very deep issues, and traditionally war in the scenarios have involved some kind of mediat

marine who served in the infantry unit in iraq and ramadi during 07. i believe you and your cronies are horribly wrong on the issue of waterboarding and the slippery slope of condoning waterboarding leads to escalating evil by those who think they are well-intentioned. >> guest: i respect that but i disagree. we've water board u.s. military personnel every year in order to help them trained for a station and escapes and waterboarding was used in a very carefully described and prescribed weight. i put the memo on my website, rove.com said people can read them and see how careful these lawyers at the department of justice were making certain our commitments and our international commitments were met. and it was used only in the case of three high-value targets in the information we received once the technique had been used and resistance broken safelights both here and abroad and foiled plots some of which are known to the public and some of which are not. >> host: gail in west river maryland, good afternoon or good morning. >> caller: good morning. mr. r

the debates in congress, to mandate a withdrawal from iraq, demoralizes u.s. troops. the request of my staffers to me as they embark on their mission to afghanistan is to provide them with all of the tools and all of the support that they need to defeat the enemy and to win. they ask that we strengthen our commitment, our resolve to the mission in afghanistan and pakistan. our enemies are redoubling their efforts. we must also. in june of last year, osama bin laden noted that u.s. efforts had been, and i quote, transferred to afghanistan and pakistan. thus, jihad must be directed at that region, end quote. bin laden later said in september, and i quote, not much longer and the war in afghanistan will be over. afterwards, not even a trace of the americans will be found there. much rather they will retreat far away behind the atlantic. then, only we and you will be left. end quote. we must do everything possible to deny by laden and al qaeda such a victory. -- bin laden and al qaeda such a victory. for us to succeed in afghanistan we need america's support, but t

this wording and this use of public doctrine, i think, was one of the reasons why iraq's diplomacy was so hard. it was seen as a first test of a new thing. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] >> it's always been true that the united states has been able to act pre-emptively in a situation if they thought it would be in our national uld self-defense. be in our national self-defense. the issue was not preemption. it was the other word in the doctrine -- "prevention." there and is knockenot -- iran t going to have a missile with which to attack the united states. but knowing that iran may soon have a nuclear weapons capable program, do we act before they get to that point? that would be preventive war, to prevent something from happening. for all the reasons that she stated, i think we will end up in a very similar situation to the way things work in the cold war. there was a phrase in the cold war that was called "adequate verification." it was a term invented by the nixon administration. it meant that we co

uh, people are calling it the mostealistic movie ever made about the iraq war. 's so realistic, president bush actually lied to get into it. he-- (laughter) he went to the theater. he told the girl at the box office... (applause) he was 65 or something. most people know kathryn bigelow used to be married to jim cameron, who directed "avatar," which, under california law, means even if he had won the oscar, she'd still get it, so... (laughter) a married couple won for "best film editing" tonight. and here's a bit of oscar trivia for you-- there have been three married couples who won for "best original screenplay"-- um, m-muriel and sydney box for "the seventh veil," earl and pamela wallace for" and ben affleck and matt damon for "good will hunting." (laughter) so that's true. (applause) there were, um... who won the "best actress"? it was sandra llock. and, uh, jeff bridges won "best actor." no surprises in the "best supporting actor" categories, either-- christoph waltz, who will be on our show later tonight, n for "inglorious basterds." and mo'nique won for "pr

the commission have legitimacy? all of this debate shows that elections matter in iraq. it is basically a positive sign of our important the democratic process has been to see a debate that is the strongest in iraq today. with iran, this is i think probably the biggest challenge that we face in the region and the question is how does the international community work together to show if a country openly defies its international obligations, refuses to play by the rules how do show that there are consequences for its behavior? the united states has looked at the engagement as one way to address the diplomatic challenge the rand poses it to us and to engage does not mean to embrace. it means using a different tool in the toolbox along with the others to try to fix a problem but i would argue there has been a benefit of the president's commitment and has demonstrated the evidence to reach our to the iranians that we're not seen as blocking a diplomatic resolution the focus is much more internationally on iran and iran's behavior and much less, was there a chance for a peacefu