Click photo to play
Length: 3:57
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: There
has been progress, and that is in the reduction in
sectarian murders in Baghdad which is about one-third
now of what it was in January. That's an important
development, because the sectarian murders can be a
cancer in a neighborhood. It is something on which
our commanders and the Iraqi commanders have focused
quite a bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: General David Petraeus shortly after briefing
congressional leaders on the situation in Iraq, and
arguing against setting a timetable to pull troops
out.
It turns out it wasn't enough to stop the House from
doing just that, narrowly approving a war funding
bill that calls for combat forces to start leaving
Iraq by October 1, and sets a non-binding goal to
complete the pullout by next April. The Senate vote
is expected tomorrow. And if it passes there
President Bush promises a veto.
Earlier, with a debate still going on, we sat down
with CNN's Michael Ware, just back from spending time
with American forces on the ground in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Michael, you literally just got back from
Iraq. You were recently embedded in Diyala Province.
How does the situation on the ground compare to what
we're being told over here?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, having just
arrived back in the United States today, Anderson,
I'm struck by the almost delusional nature of the
debate that's under way.
I mean, what we're hearing, in the wake of General
Petraeus's briefing to Congress, I mean, it's so out
of touch with what's actually happening on the
ground. I mean, the truth is, America has a lot of
tough decisions to make right now. It needs to define
for itself what success really will be.
COOPER: We heard today, after meeting with General
Petraeus, John Boehner, the House minority leader,
said that -- he was saying, a lot of the sectarian
violence is being backed by Iran, has been caused by
Iran.
WARE: Old, old story. The sectarian...
COOPER: True?
WARE: Absolutely.
The sectarian violence is two things. One, it is the
ultimate legacy of former al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi. Now, he was assassinated by the
U.S. using a precision bomb that blew him up in a
house. He said from the very beginning -- he wrote
it: My plan is to create sectarian violence, a civil
war, because that will feed al Qaeda's aims.
That also feeds Iran's aims. The more that these two
halves of this society go to war, the more it feeds
America's enemies.
And to hear American politicians talking about
putting pressure on Maliki, a lame-duck prime
minister who has no authority with his own people or
his government, to force a reconciliation -- that
reconciliation is in nobody's interests.
COOPER: Well, if not Maliki, what are the other
options? Are there other options?
WARE: A great question, Anderson.
The alternatives that are being considered are
non-democratic. They point specifically to places
like Pakistan and Egypt, where you have military
strongmen with a quasi-democracy who first deliver
security, and democracy comes after that.
COOPER: Where does the so-called surge -- others say
just escalation -- where does it stand? How is it
going? Too soon to tell?
WARE: Oh, way too soon to tell.
But what I can tell you right now, that, in terms of
Baghdad, if you want to look at it through a
microscope, without looking at the rest of the
country, the surge will have an impact.
But, at the end of the day, if America wants to win
in Iraq, it would need to surge the whole country.
But it can't. So, what it's done, in Baghdad, you're
seeing changes in the violence.
You hear these politicians saying, sectarian murders
are down.
Yes, that's true, but at what cost? American deaths
are up.
COOPER: Michael Ware, thanks.
WARE: Thanks, Anderson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)