AC: "Let's see what the
playing field is like in the beginning of next
year."
Friday, February 27, 2009
Length: 3:56
LARGE (54.6 MB)
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SMALL (4.8 MB)
Fourteen hours after his first appearance this
morning, Michael talks to Anderson Cooper (as well
as Ed Henry) about the announced plans for
withdrawing the troops from Iraq.
ANDERSON
COOPER: Let's dig deeper now with senior White House
correspondent Ed Henry, and Michael Ware, who has
spent more time in Iraq than just about any other
correspondent alive.
So, Michael, August 31, 2010, our combat mission in
Iraq will end. That's what the president said today.
If we still have 50,000 troops, which I assume are
combat-ready, living in a combat zone and working in
a combat zone, what is really different?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well...
COOPER: I mean, how -- how can you say it's really
done?
WARE: Well, it isn't, quite simply.
I mean, to a degree, this is a political shell game.
Fifty thousand troops, in one sense, is not enough to
deter anyone who is posing a significant threat to
the Iraqi state or the fragile peace that America has
put together.
But those 50,000 troops will nonetheless be in a war
zone. Now, we say they're going to be training
Iraqis. You can get shot at doing that. They're going
to be advising Iraqis in the field. You can
definitely get shot at doing that. And going on
counterterrorism raids, well, that speaks for itself.
COOPER: So, they can still be conducting raids...
WARE: Absolutely.
COOPER: ... and they probably will be?
WARE: In conjunction with the Iraqis.
Now, let's remember, the Bush administration that
started this war, actually ended it. It wasn't
President Obama. The Status of Forces Agreement that
was signed at the end of last year and came into
effect on New Year's Day says that, within three
years of that time, 36 months, American troops will
be out of Iraq, no negotiation, no discussion.
COOPER: That's not what the Bush administration
wanted, but they really didn't have much choice.
That's what the Iraqis wanted.
WARE: That's it. I mean, essentially, they
surrendered their war-fighting capability. And the
Iraqis had the whip hand.
America didn't have any leverage to force anything
different. So, while today's announcement by
President Obama is enormously significant
symbolically, in effect, it was already done.
COOPER: Ed, I want to play something that Defense
Secretary Robert Gates told CNN's Dan Lothian today.
Let's play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The
president's been very explicit and was very explicit,
I think, in his speech, that this remaining force
will engage in counterterrorism operations.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So,
combat?
GATES: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's saying, yeah, combat.
So, I mean, are they all on the same page on this,
the administration? How does Gates and all the others
feel?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think
they're mostly on the same page.
I think it essentially comes down to the language and
how you define it. When you look very closely at what
the president said just a moment ago, he said, our
combat mission in Iraq will end. He didn't say,
combat operations will end. He was very careful to
say the combat mission, the broader mission.
And, so, what I think what the White House is banking
on is, from talking to senior officials, is that it's
not pretty, it's not perfect, it's not exactly the
16-month timeline that he laid out, but the bottom
line is that, because of what he did today, following
on what President -- former President Bush did, the
war in Iraq is going to end.
It's going to last a little longer, and, again, it's
not going to perfect. But, if you think -- if you
want to go to perfection, look at where Republicans
were just six months ago, where they were insisting
no timeline at all. And, all of a sudden, John
Boehner, John McCain, and other top Republicans are
saying, we can pretty much embrace this plan.
So, nobody's perfect in their language. Nobody's
perfect in their approach. At the end of the day,
Barack Obama promised as a candidate to end this war.
Today, he moved a step closer. It's going to take
longer than liberals want, but he moved a much big
step -- you know, a bigger step closer to getting
that done.
COOPER: Michael, has he left any wiggle room, in case
events start to unravel on the ground?
WARE: Most certainly. I mean, is any of this set in
stone? Are there tablets where these commandments are
written? No.
And what we're going to see, is during this year, the
withdrawal doesn't really happen.
COOPER: Right. It doesn't really start until next
year.
WARE: No. We have got 14 brigades there. Only two are
coming home this year. They were anyway.
The rest, probably 130-odd thousand or thereabouts,
will remain in Iraq for the elections at the end of
the year and for what may happen after. It's only
then that he intends to start bringing them home.
Let's see what the playing field is like in the
beginning of next year.
COOPER: Yeah.
WARE: I mean, he doesn't want to be the president who
oversees American defeat.
COOPER: Let's hope for the best, no doubt about that.
Michael Ware, thank you.
Ed Henry as well, for the reporting. Appreciate it,
Ed.