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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN
ANCHOR: First, the president, the speech.
And, for that, we turn to CNN's senior political
correspondent, Candy Crowley -- Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT:
Anderson, no surprises, certainly nothing that will
satisfy critics, but still an important moment this
evening. After four-and-a-half years of war, the
commander in chief said something he has never said
before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now,
because of the measure of success we are seeing in
Iraq, we can begin seeing troops come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: The president's plan for troop withdrawal is
not big enough or soon enough to satisfy critics, but
it does move the political debate forward, from
whether troops should come home to how many and when.
It will not sit well with the president's opponents
that he is now talking with Iraqi leaders about an
extended U.S. stay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: They understand that their success will require
U.S. political, economic and security engagement that
extends beyond my presidency. These Iraqi leaders
have asked for an enduring relationship with America.
And we are ready to begin building that relationship,
in a way that protects our interests in the region
and requires many fewer American troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Candy, this long-term commitment was not what
the American people were told would be needed during
the buildup to the war.
CROWLEY: Well, and it's going to be a problem, I
think.
You know, when you talk to people on Capitol Hill,
even critics of the president, all of them have known
that U.S. troops could not come out quickly, that it
would take a year or two years.
But, when the president starts talking about troops
staying there "beyond my administration," a long-term
stay there, I think this is something that will be
the source of conversation, because it is not what
people thought they were buying into.
COOPER: All right.
Along with Candy Crowley, Michael Ware is joining me
in Baghdad. Also with us, former presidential adviser
David Gergen and the newest member of the best
political team on television, CNN senior political
analyst Gloria Borger.
Gloria, welcome to 360. Good to have you here at CNN.
Michael, let's start off with you.
What was your impression overall of the president's
speech?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, my
first impression is, wow. I mean, it's one thing to
return to the status quo, to the situation we had
nine months ago, with 130,000 U.S. troops stuck here
for the foreseeable future. It's another thing to
perpetuate the myth. I mean, I won't go into detail,
like the president's characterizations of the Iraqi
government as an ally, or that the people of Anbar,
who support the Sunni insurgency, asked America for
help, or to address this picture of a Baghdad that
exists only in the president's mind.
Let me just refer to this, what the president said,
that, "if America were to be driven out of Iraq,
extremists of all strains would be emboldened." They
are now. "Al Qaeda could gain new recruits and new
sanctuaries." They have that now. "Iran would benefit
from the chaos and be encouraged in its efforts to
gain nuclear weapons and dominate the region." It is
now. "Iraq would face a humanitarian crisis." It does
now. And that we would "leave our children a far more
dangerous world." That's happening now. That's wow.
COOPER: Gloria Borger, who was watching this from
Washington, your impressions. You said that today you
could not find a Republican who wanted President Bush
to give this speech. Why?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I
think Republicans, many of whom are now critics of
this war, were very willing to stand with General
Petraeus. There was a sense that the general did
quite well in his testimony on Capitol Hill.
If you look at public opinion polls, the public
trusts the generals to figure out what to do next in
the war more than they do the president or even the
Congress. And, so, Republicans were saying, it was
fine with us to stand with Petraeus. By the president
going on television tonight, he is reminding the
American public that this is, of course, the policy
of George W. Bush that they are supporting.
And this comes from Republican presidential
candidates as well. They would just as soon that the
president had kept quiet and just leave Petraeus'
statements stand for themselves.
COOPER: David Gergen, let's play the sound bite that
Michael Ware was referring to about the consequences
of failing here in Iraq.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: If we were to be driven out of Iraq, extremists
of all strains would be emboldened. Al Qaeda could
gain new recruits and new sanctuaries. Iran would
benefit from the chaos and would be encouraged in its
efforts to gain nuclear weapons and dominate the
region.
Extremists could control a key part of the global
energy supply. Iraq could face a humanitarian
nightmare. Democracy movements would be violently
reversed. We would leave our children to face a far
more dangerous world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: David, do you agree with Michael, that that's
happening now?
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Much of
what he said is already happening, as Michael Ware
has reported.
At the same time, Anderson, this has become the most
effective argument the president has for keeping a
substantial number of troops in Iraq, and it's one
that's appealing to Republican moderates. It's one
that's made Democrats scared of pulling the plug
totally on this.
And I think it's one that's going to give the
president enough support to get his plan basically --
to get it through the Congress. I don't think the
Congress is going to change his plan.
What I do think emerged tonight was what you started
with, in that what was new tonight was about this
enduring, long-term commitment to Iraq. What we know
is that the president met earlier today with a
handful of journalists. And it's been reported out of
that, that he talked about signing up an agreement
with Iraq that would commit the United States to the
security of Iraq, in much the same way we have been
committed to Korea.
We have been now in Korea for over half-a-century.
That was a major, dramatic commitment by the United
States that required the approval of the United
States' Congress. If the president is seriously
talking about such a commitment -- and he certainly
hinted heavily at that tonight -- that would be a
major new commitment, going well past his presidency,
and will cause a storm on Capitol Hill.
COOPER: No doubt about that.
Candy, the president also spoke about really both
parties coming together. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: The way forward I have described tonight makes
it possible, for the first time in years, for people
who have been on opposite sides of this difficult
debate to come together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Is there room for both sides to come together
at this point?
CROWLEY: Look, there is room in the middle, but
they're not going to come together the way the
president's talking about.
Some moderate Republicans that we have heard publicly
on the Senate side and on the House side have said,
listen, it's time to get out of there. So, what the
Democrats are now trying to do is get enough
Republicans on board on Capitol Hill to try to force
the president's hand further.
There's a couple of amendments. They're going to get
to these votes next week when the defense
authorization bill comes up. So, the battle doesn't
end tonight. The battle begins tonight. And the
president, you know, what -- his real audience
tonight, Anderson, was those Republicans who are
being wooed by the Democrats.
COOPER: Michael, the president also spoke about the
Iraqi government and the need to pressure the Iraqi
government. I want to play what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Now, the Iraqi government must bring the same
determination to achieving reconciliation. This is an
enormous undertaking after more than three decades of
tyranny and division. The government has not met its
own legislative benchmarks. And, in my meetings with
Iraqi leaders, I have made it clear that they must.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Can this government, the Maliki government,
be pressured?
WARE: Well, Anderson, it might be surprising, but
there are very real limits to the pressure America
can apply to this government.
COOPER: Even with all the money we have poured in,
even...
(CROSSTALK)
WARE: Oh, absolutely. Look, forget all that. I mean,
there's other people willing to provide just the
same, if not more. You know, Iran has built far more
radio stations, TV stations. It funds far more
newspapers and hospitals than America does.
I mean, it's one thing to pressure Maliki. He doesn't
exist without America. He is a lame duck. You can
really screw him down. But his government is a
different thing. Many of its factions are much more
ideologically aligned to Tehran than to America. So,
there's no carrots.
The best thing is the stick, the Anbar tribes, the
Sunni Baath insurgency. Beat them with that. And
that's what America's doing.
COOPER: But the U.S. talks about reconciliation and
the need for Shia-led government to reconcile with
Sunni, even former Sunni insurgents. Does this
government, do the Shias want to reconcile?
WARE: Not the ones that I'm talking to, certainly not
the power brokers. I mean, I'm talking about the
heads of the largest Shia militias in this country,
men who sit in the parliament, men who are the
chairmen of the security and defense committees, the
parliamentary oversight watchdog committees.
These men are not looking for reconciliation. What
they want is America to "get out of the way and let
us loose."
COOPER: Gloria, Senator Jack Reed gave the Democratic
response. I want to play an excerpt from that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: A nation eager for
change in Iraq heard the President speak about his
plans for the future. But, once again, the president
failed to provide either a plan to successfully end
the war or a convincing rationale to continue it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Gloria, do the Democrats have many options?
BORGER: No, the Democrats really don't have any
options, because, Anderson, they just don't have the
votes right now.
What you're going to hear the Democrats talking
about, which Senator Reed talked about, is the lack
of political progress in Iraq. They're going to say
Iraq's problems are not military right now, they're
political, and that the president hasn't shown a way
to get the kind of political progress that you need
to have a safe Iraq and to get American troops home.
And, so, you're going to hear a lot more of that.
That's what Senator Reed was talking about. And,
however, the Democrats also understand that they need
at least 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate
these days, as Candy was saying, and they don't have
those votes. And, so, the president is most likely
going to get his way.
COOPER: David, it does present, as you mentioned,
obstacles for Republicans coming into this
presidential election. You basically are going to
have a new presidential election with large numbers
of U.S. forces still on the ground here.
GERGEN: Well, that's the downside of this for
Republicans, because it's almost certain now that
we're going to have 100,000 troops or so in Iraq come
November of 19 -- in 2008.
And that makes -- that is a perfect setup for
Democrats to run not only for the White House, but
for the Congress, saying, this party won't -- the
Republican Party won't end our war in Iraq. We will.
And that's going to be a powerful argument. So, I
think, for a lot of Republicans, as Gloria Borger was
saying earlier, this is a very, very two-edged sword.
You know, you can grab one side of this, and you
think you're supporting troops and supporting
patriotism, but you also may be supporting a sword
coming through your own belly here come November of
'08.
COOPER: I have got to ask Michael Ware this question.
The president talked about improved quality of life
here in Baghdad. I want to play that for our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are
being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who
live among the people they protect. Many schools and
markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward
with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down.
And ordinary life is beginning to return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What he didn't mention is, there are four
million Iraqis not in their homes. Neighborhoods here
in Baghdad have been ethnically cleansed.
WARE: Absolutely.
And if by the -- if the president means by ordinary
life, families essentially living locked up in their
homes, in almost perpetual darkness, without
refrigeration, or perhaps constantly struggling --
struggling for ever more expensive gas to run
generators, if he means waiting in their homes,
wondering if government death squads will drag them
off and torture and execute them, if he means living
in sectarian, cleansed neighborhoods where people who
were your friends have had to flee, if he's talking
about living in communities that are protected by
militias, then, yes, life has returned to ordinary.
COOPER: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad, David
Gergen, Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley, appreciate all
your perspectives tonight.
We have a lot of ahead on the program.
We were watching the speech very closely in terms of
the words that were used. Maybe because we're
curious, or because we have producers we like to
torment, we wanted to know which words the president
said most and which he didn't say at all.
So, we asked our producer Rainman to count words.
Here's the "Raw Data."
Mr. Bush said al Qaeda 12 times. General Petraeus got
eight mentions. Surge got six, and getting no mention
whatsoever, the word victory.
We have touched on it already. We will lay it out
in-depth in a moment, the president's morphing
message over the years on Iraq, first WMD, then
democracy. Well -- now, well, see for yourself.
Also tonight, a lot more news on a lot more fronts.
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ANDERSON COOPER: Well,
you heard the president tonight talking about things
improving here. General Petraeus said the same to
Congress this week, and he had charts to prove it.
But even if you accept each and every hopeful
statistic, the hard fact is the killing here remains
horrific.
More than 1,700 Iraqi civilians gunned down, blown up
or otherwise murdered last month, according to the
U.S. government. Sometimes their bodies are found
horribly tortured, dumped on the street as a warning
to others.
Now, these are not statistics, these are people. Some
are returned to their families, others are never
claimed.
But even here in a land where it is hard at times to
hold on to your humanity, there are people who
remember the dead, whether they're Sunni, Shia, or
Christian, people willing to do the grim work that
must be done.
We want to warn you what you're about to see is tough
to take. There's no doubt about it, but it is what
our troops see, it is what Iraqis see, and we think
you should see it, as well.
Here's CNN's Michael Ware.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These
are the bodies of Baghdad's unclaimed dead, collected
from the morgues, the streets and even the city
sewers. They are the men, the women and the children
no one ever came for. Without names, without family
to mourn them, these are the lost souls of the war.
Only these men are here to mark their passing:
strangers, volunteers compelled by conscience to
help.
"When I enter the morgue," says Sheik Jamal al-Sudani
from Sadr City, "I don't see these human beings as
Christian, Shia, or Sunni, because I see them in
death, embracing each other, naked, hugging, piled
one on the other. I look to them as human beings,
with it my duty to bury them so their sanctity will
not be violated again."
On this morning the men load into cars and a bus for
the nearly 150-mile journey to Najaf. When they
arrive, the volunteers prepare the plastic sheets and
cotton shrouds to wrap the dead and do what they can
to repel the touch and odor of death.
"I only think about one thing, that one day I will
face the same fate as these people have faced, and
will there be someone to take care of me and bury me,
too?"
The bodies are ceremonially washed with earth and
wrapped, each one numbered, photographed, and listed
on a computer database. And in graves dug by hand,
the bodies are laid side by side, two to a grave.
"We've been doing this for 20 years under Saddam. But
the numbers have increased, as have the difficulties,
because now it's as if the streets are flowing with
blood." Under Saddam they buried up to 40 people a
month. Today the numbers are in the low hundreds.
"Now you see Iraqis' houses meant to be a family's
safest place. And they've become like graves for the
families because any minute, any second, they're
ready to die by explosion, air strikes or car bombs.
And no man and no government, American nor Iraqi, can
fix it," he laments, "because now that will take a
miracle."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: The reality of war from Michael Ware.
Why are so many people unclaimed?
WARE: Well, it's a number of things, Anderson.
Obviously, there's some people that are so badly
disfigured, they cannot simply be identified.
But there's an even sadder class of people. These are
the people that you can identify by looking at their
bodies. But their families simply can't come and get
them, because to do so, they have to cross the
sectarian lines. So to reclaim your loved one, you
have to risk your life, almost certain death.
COOPER: So if they're a Sunni and have to go into a
Shia neighborhood, and they're too scared to do that.
WARE: Absolutely. Like for example, just north of
Sadr City, the Mahdi Army Shia stronghold, there's an
area that has canals running through it. It's a
well-known dumping site.
So if a body is dumped there, that's essentially the
Mahdi Army saying, "We did it." And there's no way on
this earth that a Sunni can go to that dump site to
ever get the body.
COOPER: People are found, I mean, with holes drilled
into them with power drills.
WARE: Absolutely. In fact, the sheik that you see
there who buries all these people, he talks about the
nightmares that he has. He described one body that he
found, he said it was like a porcupine. There was
literally nails drilled into it all over.
COOPER: Unbelievable.
WARE: Yeah.
COOPER: Michael Ware, appreciate the reporting, as
always.