Joint Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee and Hose Foreign Affairs Committee. The September Report: What's Next for Iraq?

JOINT HEARING OF THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE AND HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: THE SEPTEMBER REPORT: WHAT'S NEXT FOR IRAQ?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

REP. TOM COLE (R-OK): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I'd be remiss not to begin by just thanking both you gentlemen, and obviously Secretary Perry, for your service and the amount of time that you've given us today. Even though I know there are differences between you, I know how much you respect one another. And all of us here appreciate your service to our country. So thank you extraordinarily much.

I want to -- I'm like Mr. Snyder. I think there's actually a number of areas of agreement here in terms of sort of the rhythm of what's going to happen. I think we're going to sustain a fairly substantial force, the current force, through roughly the end of the year, early next year. It's going to draw down. The pace will maybe be debatable, but I don't think it's going to be as rapid as some of the critics would like it to be.

So given that fact, it seems to me -- and I think you've both made this point in different ways -- the Iraqis are really the key players going forward. This is, after all, their country. And in the end, we've provided -- we've gotten rid of Saddam. We've provided an opportunity. The real question is, what can they do with the opportunity?

General Keane, you've actually had the most recent experience in that regard. So it's a dangerous game, but I'd like you to speculate just politically. Number one, let me ask you this. Do the Iraqis understand the rhythm that American forces are going to be drawn down, just inevitably? Have they faced that reality themselves?

And then, number two, do they see this as a time in which they can prepare for a civil war, which I've heard some critics say, or do they see this genuinely as an opportunity, you know, almost a last- chance opportunity, to sit down with one another and begin to work out their differences?

MR. KEANE: Yes. The Iraqis certainly understand what is taking place in terms of our immediate plans in '08. I'm somewhat confident that Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus have talked to their leadership about what our intentions are. And the Iraqis certainly want us to be in Iraq. Make no mistake about that. They know what happened in '06 and what has changed since that time frame as a result of the president's decision to provide additional forces for security. So they appreciate all of that.

But they also know the progress that's being made. So I'm encouraged by it, and I think it offers us a political opportunity there. The security operation has to cement itself a little bit more and strengthen. And I do believe it'll move the Iraqi political machine, so to speak. That coalition is weak, to be sure. Maliki represents most people's third choice, not their first or second. And we all know the challenges that we have with that. But nonetheless, he has grown in that position when you try to be fair to him.

And that coalition, as recent as a couple of weeks ago, has met to do a couple of things. One is to truly move through some of this legislation, the ones that they feel is most important, and that's de- Ba'athification, revenue-sharing, et cetera. And then the second thing, which I find very important, is to begin to establish a long-term security relationship with the United States; their agreement to want to do that. And I believe that is critical to us, because it starts moving them solving the immediate problems politically that they need, knowing that the United States is not going to precipitously withdraw, knowing that the United States wants to have a relationship with them as a fledgling Arab democracy in that region of the world. And they want that relationship.

So I see political progress being made in '08 in that country, even though it'd be hard for General Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker to declare such a thing, certainly. And I think it offers us then the very real opportunity of the security problem just falling off the charts in terms of a problem.

REP. COLE: In the limited time I have available, let me ask you, do you think the various constellations of forces in Iraq are willing to work with one another before they're working with people outside? And that's part of the problem. Everybody's loyalty is to somebody someplace else instead of to the central government or to even a central national identity, it seems like.

MR. KEANE: Iraq is a complicated place. I mean, even among the Shi'as, you see the problems that are in the south with Shi'as fighting Shi'as and how fragmented even the Shi'a militia is.

What has happened in Iraq, though -- and it had to do -- it's a manifestation of the tribal revolt, so to speak -- is these people are fed up with this violence. And while they all had purposes for it and political objectives for it, the people are fed up with it. And that is becoming a catalyst for change in Iraq itself. And that is why, you know, I have some of the optimism that I have, because it started at a grassroots level, which, in the long run, has more meaning than top-down-driven.

REP. LANTOS: General Batiste.

MR. BATISTE: I think one of the big questions is, will the current government be successful? The people are fed up, I'm sure, of what's going on. But when only 60 percent of the Iraqi Parliament shows up for duty on the first day after their vacation, that ought to send up a star cluster to all of us.

We need more than intentions. We need action. That's why we've got to shift our focus outside of Iraq and solve the regional issues with a new focused strategy that will drive military missions to the United States, that will allow us to reset the force in a deliberate fashion. A good bit of it redeploys to rearm and refit for the next fight, whenever that's going to be. We desperately need to do that.

Part of it stays and re-shifts for other missions, to protect the U.S. mission, to go after extremist groups, direct action, to train and equip Iraqi army, to be a counterbalance to the other influences in the region, like Iran and what's going to happen in Kurdistan. But we need to get there and put the onus on the Iraqi government, as it is, to be in charge of their future, take charge of their destiny.

As I said in my testimony, the only solution in Iraq is an Iraqi solution. And only Islam can defeat Islamic extremists.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source