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Length: 3:29
PAULA ZAHN: Our next stop
is Iraq, where questions about the troop surge and
whether or not it's working are matters of life and
death every day, including today, when another US
service member died in a mortar attack on Baghdad's
Green Zone.
Just a short while ago, our Michael Ware joined me
from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: So, Michael, as you are well aware, this report
apparently says that the Iraqi government has missed
some major benchmarks, but some progress is being
made.
What do you see on the ground from there?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in terms of
the sectarian violence and the attacks on coalition
and Iraqi security forces, they certainly continue
with a pace.
Have they been dampened to any degree here in the
capital, Baghdad, alone? Perhaps. Nonetheless, the
body counts keep rising -- more than 500 executed
bodies found on the streets of Baghdad alone. That's
just one form of the violence. And, across the
country, so far, we are seeing on average three
Americans being killed every day here.
So, there may be some marginal impacts, and there may
be some improvements in some areas, but, by and
large, no, this is still wreaked by violence and
defined by bloodshed -- Paula.
ZAHN: The president, nevertheless, today fiercely
defending the war, saying it is winnable, and telling
those who are criticizing this stage of the campaign
to wait until September, until another report comes
out. What could possibly change between now and
September?
WARE: Well, to be honest, not a great deal.
Nonetheless, that time, certainly from the military
perspective, must be given. I mean, let's be fair to
the commanders here who are governing and guiding
this war. Their new strategy has only just been put
in place. Yes, they have been building up to it, as
the 30,000-odd extra troops they needed have arrived.
But it's only been a matter of weeks that they have
all been in place.
Now, what great impact they're going to have,
honestly, it's easy to be skeptical about that.
Nonetheless, they at least deserve the chance to be
given a few months before anyone makes any
cataclysmic decisions about the progress of the war.
ZAHN: Of course, administration watching very
carefully what Senator John McCain is saying -- he,
of course, just back from a trip from Iraq. And he
says he thinks this troop surge will eventually work.
What evidence have you seen of that?
WARE: Well, to be honest, not a great deal.
I wish I had Senator McCain's optimism. However,
unfortunately, I don't. Like we said, you know, among
the indicators of violence, the different measures
that the coalition uses to take the tempo of the war,
they are being kept close to the chest of the
generals. They don't want to reveal what they're
using as the litmus for the success of the mission
right now, because they don't want the enemy -- al
Qaeda, the nationalist insurgents and the
Iranian-backed militias -- to go out there and
purposely attack these indicators, and skew the
figures to distort them.
However, we're already seeing that going on, as the
second-most powerful American general in the country
said, our enemies are surging even as we are.
ZAHN: Michael Ware, got to leave it there tonight.
Thanks so much for the update. Appreciate
it.