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Length: 4:16
JIM CLANCY: Welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD
TODAY, where we bring CNN's viewers around the globe
an international perspective on the news.
Well, the U.S. president, you saw it there, talking
about the war in Iraq once again. He says the U.S.
cannot leave that country to the likes of al-Qaeda.
Well, Iraq one of the few places in the world where
U.S. soldiers face off directly against fighters
carrying the al-Qaeda banner. It's in the city of
Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Sunni-dominated
al-Anbar province.
Michael Ware has been embedded there with U.S.
troops. He joins us now from Baghdad.
Michael, no one more than the military men that you
have been with over this embed support the president
and his views. Do they feel as though the
administration, the Defense Department is supporting
them in their fight?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, obviously
this is a very sensitive issue for commanders in the
field to discuss. And I've been going out to Ramadi
since 2003, so I've watched this evolution and I've
seen many different deployments of U.S. commanders
sent to Ramadi, all faced with the same problem.
I mean, the extraordinary thing is that President
Bush put Iraq front and center in the war on terror
in his speeches. He even specifically referred to
Anbar Province and Ramadi itself as al-Qaeda's
toehold from where it wants to build its caliphate.
All of which is true. But as U.S. military
intelligence and U.S. commanders in the field will
privately concede, the fact is that this is a gaping
black hole in the war on terror.
This is al-Qaeda in Iraq's central command node. It's
the best place for it to have its leadership. Zarqawi
hid there. His replacement moves through there. It's
where they can plan, where they can rest. It's where
they can be relatively undisturbed.
Yet, there's simply not enough troops to go in there.
They are hoping to disrupt al-Qaeda. They don't even
have a plan to decimate or displace al-Qaeda.
The word they use is "neutralize." That's the
commander's mission.
The U.S. commanders use the term "economy of force."
That's a military application that talks about using
the troops and the forces that you have to do a
mission that's greater than your resources. So they
have to make tough choices.
So the bottom line is, the gaping hole is that here's
an al-Qaeda headquarters in the center of what they
hope to be the caliphate. There's simply not enough
troops to do anything about it -- Jim.
CLANCY: On another front, we're talking about the
Sunni-dominated al-Qaeda, the Sunni forces there in
Ramadi. There are also grave concerns about growing
power among Shia Muslim militias, often facing off in
a sectarian conflict with their Sunni rivals. But
today you have Prime Minister al-Maliki in Iran
talking about non- interference.
What does all of this mean?
WARE: Look, this is the other great story of Iraq,
Jim. I mean, there's two enormous dynamics under
play.
One is the war with al-Qaeda. But the other one, the
greater one, even, is the competition between the
United States and Iran for influence here in Iraq.
And this is fought out behind the scenes politically
and also in the field.
We've heard Ambassador Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador
to Iraq, accuse Iran many, many times of providing
weapons, arms, training to Shia militias. In fact,
there's untold military intelligence material that
shows Iranian support is killing British and American
troops.
Iran, however, is playing a very, very savvy game.
The government in power is much closer to Tehran than
it is to Washington. And what Tehran now is doing is
putting America in a lose-lose situation.
It's saying America and Iraq need help to build the
Iraqi security forces, to build the intelligence
apparatus, and rebuild the country. We're ready to do
this. If Iraq cannot do this because America vetoes
it, it questions the independence. If Iraq does it,
it gives Iran even greater influence -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right. There has to be concern in
Washington this day as those talks go ahead. We'll
wait for the outcome.
Michael Ware, as always, thank you.