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Length: 2:19
JOHN ROBERTS: Michael Ware joins us now, live from
Baghdad.
Michael, incredibly dramatic video. What's really
interesting about it is typically the lens of the
camera does not capture the intensity of what you
actually experience on the ground, but in this case
you did.
What was it like to actually be there?
WARE: Well, I've been going out to Ramadi since 2003
and I've seen this state that you are watching now
develop before my own eyes. I mean, back in November
last year there was five U.S. bases in the city. I
was there the day that al Qaeda decided to attack all
five bases at once, a massive coordinated operation.
In March when this Marine battalion arrived, two days
after they got there, the entire battalion was
attacked at once. As a senior officer said, "Every
weapons system we had in the battalion was firing."
So that's what the reality is like for these guys.
This is how they lived seven months and this is how
another group is in there now living the next seven
months. I mean, this is the stark realty of the war
on terror at its very tip end -- John.
ROBERTS: Michael, you called this, you referred to it
as the meat grinder in Ramadi. And we heard from the
Marine general who is in charge of that whole region
out there in Anbar Province, that he doesn't have
enough Marines. Doesn't have enough boots on the
ground to be able to defeat the insurgency. So is
this the way that things are going to continue in
that area?
WARE: Absolutely. Until someone decides to do
something properly about it, al Qaeda will continue
to dominate, hold sway and in fact blossom, not just
militarily but politically. President Bush, in one of
his recent speeches, pointed to captured al Qaeda
documents revealing very detailed plans to
essentially set up its own Islamic government in that
province.
Well, we learned from U.S. Marine intelligence al
Qaeda has already infiltrated that provincial or
state government, so much so that they are making
$400,000 to $600,000 per month from the taxation of
fuel and oil into the city -- John.
ROBERTS: Amazing. They found ways to make money at
doing it. Incredible piece of video. Michael Ware in
Baghdad, thanks very much. Appreciate it.