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LARRY KING: Let's get
into the big story of the day, Iraq.
In our first segment, the guests are, in Baghdad
Michael Ware, CNN correspondent based there.
In Camp Victory, Iraq, Anderson Cooper, the anchor of
"A.C. 360". He will be in -- at Camp Victory all
week.
In Portland, Oregon is Lars Larson, the nationally
syndicated radio host.
And the nationally syndicated radio host Ed Schultz
is in Fargo, North Dakota.
Michael, what's the reaction in Baghdad to the
Petraeus/Crocker appearance today?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in Baghdad so
far -- the reaction so far, Larry, of course, has
been muted. It's late in the evening here. It's -- in
fact, it's 5:00 in the morning. So the testimony went
through late into the night. And there's been very
little response from anyone at this stage. Although,
I have to say, Larry, it pretty much went to script.
There was no surprises whatsoever in the testimony.
So I think everyone here in Baghdad was braced for
what was eventually delivered.
KING: Are you saying, Michael, that nothing today
surprised you at all?
WARE: No, not in the slightest, Larry. I mean we've
heard much of this before from generals Petraeus and
his other commanders. We certainly saw them softening
this ground, both he and Ambassador Crocker, leading
into this testimony.
I mean, I guess the most striking thing that was the
takeout from their combined testimony was that it
seemed that the foundation stone now of America's
success, wrapped around the surge, is the work with
the Sunni tribes -- essentially the deals cut with
the Sunni insurgency. This is obviously helping the
U.S. forces not only with the fight with Al Qaeda,
but to nudge a reluctant Iraqi government into action
and to help curb Iranian influence.
KING: Anderson, I know you just got there. You're at
Camp Victory.
What's your feel on this?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I thought it was
interesting that the Bush White House has portrayed
Al Qaeda in Iraq as the number one enemy here and, at
times, seems to portray the battle here as a fight
simply between Al Qaeda in Iraq and U.S. forces.
That is certainly not the message -- and perhaps
what, to me, was most surprising in the testimony
today is that's not the message we heard from General
Petraeus. He certainly seemed to contradict that,
although he didn't publicly contradict it. They
really focused on the influence of Iran and their
effect on sectarian militias here in the country.
It also seems that the mission, you know, continues
to change. Before, the definition of the surge was a
military concentration on Baghdad in order to provide
political security, in order to provide some form of
time for national politicians to reconcile. That
certainly has been a failure.
Really, the emphasis today was on the success of
these Sunni tribes, which Michael Ware has talked
about. And it's not clear, really, how much the surge
has had an impact on that at all, frankly.
KING: Lars Larson, Ambassador Crocker -- did he have
anything to offer of a positive nature concerning the
political situation in Iraq?
LARS LARSON, TALK RADIO HOST, "THE LARS LARSON SHOW":
Well, of course, Larry, because if you can lock down
the military situation, then the politicians can get
down to their work.
And as for Anderson's assessment that it's a failure,
how is it a failure when you get some of the most
disparate groups, like the Sunnis, working with the
government in Baghdad?
That's a real victory. Anbar was a write-off a year
ago. It's not today.
KING: Ed Schultz, what's your feel?
ED SCHULTZ, TALK RADIO HOST, "THE ED SCHULTZ SHOW":
Well, I think, Larry, what Americans are going to be
taking from this testimony today is that we, as a
country, are going to have a major footprint in Iraq
for a long time. You can talk about a surge working
-- I believe I said on your program back in January
after the state of the union that this might not be
the last surge. The fact is, you can draw down troops
a little bit, but you're still going to have a major
footprint.
This is going to be decided in November of '08 and
the next president is going to definitely have to
deal with this. I don't see any major progress being
made. He said what the president wanted him to say --
throw out some hope, throw out some progress and buy
us more time.
KING: Michael, do you think he was just aping the
administration?
WARE: No, I don't think so. I mean I've always found
both of these men who testified today to be straight
shooters and relatively frank. And, by and large,
their assessment of the situation on the ground does
accord with what it is that we experience here.
However, what I think that they didn't really go into
is some of the costs of these successes --
decentralization of power here in Iraq; the arming of
or the support of armed Sunni groups opposed to the
very government that America created; and, obviously,
the ongoing rivalry that is increasingly intensifying
between America and Iran. That's become the true
dynamic of this war now and I think we're seeing a
new moment in this conflict being ushered in, with a
concentration now on Iran.
KING: Anderson, do you -- is there any light at the
end of this tunnel or are we there, like, ad
infinitum?
COOPER: Well, certainly, the -- I mean the thing that
has caused the biggest light, according the Petraeus
and most observers here, are -- is the working with
these Sunni tribal groups. What the future holds for
that, though, however, is very much open to question,
as Michael pointed out.
Your guest said, you know, it's a political success
that these Sunni tribal groups are working with the
central government in Baghdad. That's simply a
misunderstanding of what's happening here. They're
not working with the central government in Baghdad.
In fact, they have great distrust for the
Shia-dominated government here in Baghdad. What we're
really seeing is a regionalization of these actors.
And that's where the greatest success has lied.
What it means for the future, though, there's no way
to tell at this point. It, you know, it could be just
arming groups for a future civil war or it could be
sort of proto local governments, as some observers
have pointed out and that could be the real emphasis
of moving forward.
KING: Lars, how would you respond?
LARSON: Well, here's how I'd respond. The greatest
example or greatest evidence of success today is the
fact that before Petraeus and Crocker even testified,
MoveOn.org, which is the far left of America, takes
out an ad in the "New York Times" accusing Petraeus
of being a betrayer, a traitor.
This man is a real patriot. This man is a hardworking
military man who does his job and they accuse him who
does his job and they accuse him of cooking the
books. In other words, they're anticipating that
there is so much good news in here, that they've got
to accuse this man of being a liar before he even
gets up on Capitol Hill to give his testimony. That
shows the desperation of America's political left, to
say that this is a failure before the evidence is
even out there.
KING: Would most of America, Lars, agree with them?
LARSON: I don't think so. I think most of America
would like to see some light at the end of the
tunnel. And I think an awful lot of America believes
that anything the American government and our
military sets its mind to do can be done. It's the
people who can talk us into losing and surrendering,
that's where the fail -- the possibility of failure
exists.
KING: Ed?
SCHULTZ: Well, I think the MoveOn.org, Larry, is a
stark reminder to all Americans that we've had a real
hard time as a country getting to the truth. We've
got people who are just working underneath Petraeus
who have had a little problem about taking the money
on the side. And there's been a lot of fraud. In
fact, there's been 34 Senate hearings dealing with
fraud and abuse and the billions of dollars that are
gone in Iraq.
I thought that was an advertisement to tell general
Petraeus it's about time Americans get the truth
about what's going on in Iraq...
KING: OK.
All right...
SCHULTZ: How long is this going to go?
KING: Lars and Ed, thank you both very much.
LARSON: You, too.
KING: And thanks, too, to Anderson Cooper, who will
be hosting "A.C. 360" from Camp Victory in Iraq at
the top of the hour and all this week.
KING: And Michael Ware in Baghdad, one more question
for you.
Do you see a light at the tunnel end?
WARE: Well, what I do see, Larry, is that America has
presented before it right now the opportunity to take
a decisive moment. I mean, I think the window of
opportunity to reclaim what's left of American
interests and to, in some way, try and stabilize Iraq
and hopefully stabilize the region, is rapidly
closing.
The question is, does America have the daring to do
so?
And I think the emphasis on the Sunni militia program
runs much deeper than Al Qaeda. These Sunnis out
there, these Baathists, the men who used to run
Saddam's military, first and foremost, they're
anti-Iranian. And I think that that is very much a
part of what the U.S. strategy is doing here. They're
shifting their weight politically to throw some
support behind these anti-Iranian elements so that
they can put pressure on the pro-Iranian government
in Baghdad.
KING: Thank you all very, very much.
We, of course, will stay on top of this.