Judy Woodruff's Inside Polotics

Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript

Senator, you were just back last night. How long were you actually in Iraq?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: We were 13 hours on the ground in Baghdad, Judy, split about evenly between Camp Victory at the headquarters there and about half of it in the Green Zone.

WOODRUFF: What is your sense of Iraq post-election? There seemed to be almost euphoria last week, Senator, and now we keep hearing daily suicide attacks. How did you read it?

THUNE: Well, I think the terrorists are trying to get the momentum back. But clearly after last Sunday's elections-or the elections a week ago Sunday, there's a lot of momentum. The exuberance among the Iraqi people was incredible to watch.

We were-had an opportunity to visit with a number of Iraqi voters. They were still sporting their ink-stained finger that they used on the ballot at the week-ago election. It was really something to observe. And all of the commanders in the region, the troops, everybody who had an opportunity to witness that said it was really historic, really remarkable. And they think it will be significant in helping us turn the corner toward getting this thing resolved.

WOODRUFF: So just the act of the election in and of itself, you're saying, is turning the tide?

THUNE: Well, I think the election was really sort of a watershed event. And it's not just that. It's also what's happening with respect to getting the Iraqi army trained. We visited with General Petraeus, who is in charge of that over there.

And they're really making progress in terms of getting the Iraqi security forces, whether that's the army or the national guard, the police force there, in a position to defend the Iraqi people. The real challenge now is to get a command structure put in place. But if we can get a democracy stood up there, and this government is, in fact, inclusive and reaches out to some of the minority parties, I think that we are-we've made a lot progress. That doesn't mean that there isn't some heavy lifting ahead and that these terrorists are going to go away.

But I think there were-everybody was very hopeful and very optimistic when we were there.

WOODRUFF: Well, what about reaching out to these minority parties. There is serious concern that the Sunnis are not going to be represented in appropriate numbers in the government. How did you read that?

THUNE: We visited with a leading member of the Shia alliance ticket and also the deputy prime minister there, Salih, who is a Kurd, and talked about the importance of having an inclusive government that does include the minority parties when it comes to forming a cabinet, when it comes to drafting and ratifying a constitution.

There seems to be an acknowledgement, a recognition there that in order for this democracy to be successful that it has to provide representation for some of those minority interests. So I felt very good based on the conversations that we had, that those efforts are going to be made. But I think it's something that we're going to have to monitor closely as this moves forward.

WOODRUFF: I ask, because the U.S. can't force that, can it?

THUNE: We can't force it. And we frankly shouldn't force it. But I think there is a-I think the people who are in charge there right now understand that this is something that in order for this to work, it has to take place. And there are efforts being made to reach out to the Sunni minority.

The Kurds are going to be, I think, in the second place on the ballot when this is all counted. But there are going to be some-there's already some negotiating and brokering going on, positioning for power and building coalitions in the new government. But it's important that that take place.

WOODRUFF: And on that other point you raised, Senator, about getting the Iraqis themselves to take over their own-their country's security themselves, even Secretary Rumsfeld who talks about 135,000 Iraqi security, says that includes a number who, in his words, are "green as grass." How long is the wait, do you think, for Iraqis to be able to handle that?

THUNE: I think a real key event was the election, because the Iraqi security forces had primary responsibility for protecting and defending all the polling places, the over 5,000 polling places in the election. And there were some heroic acts by some of the Iraqi security forces in protecting people who wanted to vote.

But it is getting a command structure. It's getting people who are willing to assume leadership with those "green as grass" people. There are followers there. And the intensity has picked up in terms of people who are signing up to serve in the Iraqi security forces, but it's going to mean developing a leadership capacity to have someone in place to lead those troops.

WOODRUFF: Senator John Thune, just back last night from a very quick trip to the Middle East and to Iraq. Senator, we appreciate you joining us.

THUNE: Thanks, Judy.

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