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JOHN ROBERTS: Also in Baghdad, CNN's Michael Ware,
who has been face to face with an awful lot of
heartache, too, over the last three years.
Michael, more troops were brought into Baghdad.
They're still not stopping the violence out in Anbar
Province and Ramadi, where you were embedded with
U.S. forces. There's not enough troops to quell the
insurgency. What's going on there?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I mean,
all of these things are bringing to head a point that
has been very, very clear here on the ground for
quite some time.
I mean, it's what a lot of American officers will say
in their private moments. There simply are not enough
troops in Iraq to do the job. I mean, we saw the
American Marine general who controls al-Anbar
Province admit that he does not have enough troops
right now, American or Iraqi, to defeat the
al-Qaeda-led insurgency in that province.
We have seen this massive operation under way in
Baghdad, the Battle of Baghdad, Operation Together
Forward. It's now striking into new regions, touching
on the power base of anti-American rebel cleric
Muqtada la-Sadr. Yet, in the last three days, we have
still seen over 100 bodies of the executed and
tortured show up in the capital streets.
So, it really brings into question the whole
strategy. The strategy has been "economy of force,"
just enough American troops to hold the line, while
they build up the Iraqi security forces. What now
comes into question is, what's the price of that
policy? How long will it take to develop these Iraqi
security forces? How many will die in the meantime,
American and Iraqi? How close will this country come
to civil war? And how much stronger will al-Qaeda get
in that time? -- John.
ROBERTS: It's an interesting juxtaposition, Michael,
that President Bush says, this is the central front
in the war on terror; it is so important to win this
battle; and, yet, as you said, there don't appear to
be enough troops to do it.
How important is this capture of the top aide to
al-Masri, the al Qaeda leader there in Iraq, in terms
of how it might affect the violence in Baghdad,
because he was a big operative in the Baghdad area,
wasn't he?
WARE: Well, that's according to U.S. military
intelligence.
I mean, this is one of the things about al-Qaeda in
Iraq. They are a very, very shadowy organization.
Their operational security, or their secrecy, is very
strong. It's hard to penetrate them publicly. It's
very hard to know exactly who's who.
Now, this organization, this al Qaeda organization,
when it's had big losses, it's quite often come out
and admitted that. So, we have not heard the response
from them yet. We don't know exactly who this man is.
One thing we do know, John, this al-Qaeda
organization is one that is built for loss. We saw,
with the death of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
they barely skipped a beat. This is a structure that
is ready to replace as soon as it loses people --
John.
ROBERTS: All right. It's making the battle very, very
difficult.
Michael Ware, in Baghdad, thanks very
much.