Michael Ware

Journalist

AAM: "...putting his campaign vehicle into high gear reverse."


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Length: 4:05

Note: Our local "Emergency Broadcast System" alert test was done during the piece.
Here's the transcript portion of the missing section:

ROBERTS: What do you think about that, Michael, that we're not passing along to the American people the fact that there is some progress in terms of the number of deaths on the streets of Baghdad?
WARE: Well, in terms of the number of deaths from a particularly kind of violence in Baghdad, that's true.


JOHN ROBERTS: Eighteen minutes now after the hour.

Senator McCain grabbing headlines this morning, telling us in the past half hour that the surge in Iraq is working and that neighborhoods are becoming safer.

CNN's Michael Ware joins us now to do a little reality check on what the senator is saying. Michael, you've watched and you've monitored what the senator has been saying over the past few days. Generally, what is your take on it?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, overall, in the broad thrust, the senator is correct to say that the current strategy being employed, headed by the new American commander of the war, General David Petraeus, is, indeed, having an impact on the levels of violence in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, particularly in terms of sectarian violence. Basically, the civil war. And in many ways, Senator McCain's Iraq policies have been amongst the strongest in the political sphere in D.C.

Nonetheless, the senator went deep overboard when he suggested fantastically that Americans could now dare to stroll the streets of certain parts of Baghdad and, indeed, that the top American commander, General Petraeus, drives about the capital in a Humvee that does not have weapons. So, he really put his credibility on the line there. And we see this morning with you, John, the senator backing away with that, putting his campaign vehicle into high gear reverse.

ROBERTS: Yeah, I mean, he definitely said that, well, what I meant to say was that General Petraeus goes out there in the neighborhoods of Baghdad, and he also clarified his earlier comments on the Bill Bennett radio show to say that, I'm not saying people could walk around these neighborhoods without protection.

But he did certainly insist that things are getting better, and he blamed the media, in part, for not portraying that picture.

Let me play a little bit of what he said to me this morning and get you to response to it, Michael.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The fact is that the neighborhoods are safer, and every indicator of that, the number of bodies found, the number of deaths, the fact is we are making progress. It's still dangerous, it's still a long way to go, but the fact is that things have improved. And much of that you do not get to the American people, and that's just a fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: What do you think about that, Michael, that we're not passing along to the American people the fact that there is some progress in terms of the number of deaths on the streets of Baghdad?

WARE: Well, in terms of the number of deaths from a particularly kind of violence in Baghdad, that's true. But even American commanders on the ground distance themselves from what Senator McCain has said about the broad-term implications of this.

Everybody knows that the insurgents and militias are laying low. Yes, the military is putting stress on them right now. But time and time again, they bounce back. They displace, they move their violence everywhere.

At the end of the day, nothing has really changed. The fundamental dynamics of the war aren't being addressed.

And we see today, with the release of a report for West Point by retired General Barry McCaffrey, where he spells out that Iraq is ripped by a low-grade civil war. Three million Iraqis are displaced, they don't trust their own prime minister. The government isn't functioning.

The police are feared. The army, the Iraqi army, is too small and underequipped.

U.S. support for the war has evaporated and will not return. Current deployment of U.S. forces is not sustainable.

He says, however, that the current strategy could work, that it's still possible to achieve a stable Iraq that doesn't have weapons of mass destruction and doesn't harbor terrorists. But there's nothing about democracy.

And correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't that the central strategy of the Bush administration plan for this country, to be a shining beacon for the rest of the Middle East?

ROBERTS: And Michael, McCaffrey backs you up as well, saying you can't go out in the neighborhood in Baghdad without an armed escort, as well.

Michael Ware, as always, from Baghdad, thanks. Good to see you, buddy -- Soledad.