Good News From Iraq

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

By John Scott, Fox News

June 12, 2006

Transcript

John: More video now from new raids in Iraq this morning. Seven terrorists with links to senior al-Qaeda leaders, killed in Iraq. They were taken out near Bakubah where Abu Abab al-Zarqawi was also killed, so what are we to make of all this good news from Iraq? I’m joined now by Representative Tim Roemer, former Indiana congressman and former member of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman Roemer, good morning. Good to have you with us.

Tim Roemer: Thanks John.

John: General Casey, the number two guy in Iraq, was absolutely—well as giddy as a general is likely to get when he spoke to Fox News Sunday yesterday. He says think are really looking up over there. How would you assess it?

Tim Roemer: Well I certainly think that in the short term you couldn’t have a much better week. Look at they’ve got the trifecta of successes. They had a treasure trove of intelligence which they’re following up on now to try to go after more al-Qaeda people. They got Zarqawi, one of the three best candidates to nail here, if you could get any one of the three; bin Laden, Zawahiri or Zarqawi. They got an all star terrorist with all source intelligence and I think also one of the political successes, John is the nomination of a Sunni and a Shia as key ministers in the cabinet in Iraq. That’s where we’re going to need to see more successes.

John: Let’s take a listen to some of what General Casey had to say about what the death of Zarqawi is going to mean to the coalition progress there.

(video clip from interview with General Casey, on Fox News Sunday...)

General Casey: It’s not just the Zarqawi operation, but we have had a series of operations in the aftermath of that, based on the intelligence that we have gathered over past weeks while tracking this one individual. And we have had a steady drumbeat of operations against the al-Qaeda network here in Iraq.

John: Congressman, there are some—well even the president has said that he didn’t expect that Zarqawi’s death was going to lead to an imminent cessation of some of the violence there, but they have gotten all of this good intelligence out of Zarqawi’s safe house and some other places that’s led to other raids this morning. Apparently seven al-Qaeda associated terrorists, or terrorists leaders even, killed. When you start bringing down the top guy it’s going to lead to a whole lot of intelligence, that’s going to really topple that organization, or at least deal it a severe blow, isn’t it?

Tim Roemer: Well it’s going to deal it a blow in the short term John, but its not going to get rid of the organization. I think that’s why you’ve seen General Casey play it exactly the right way. President Bush has not overplayed this as he did on the aircraft carrier. He has said that we have a lot of work to go here. Look, when you look at Zarqawi and his organization, al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, they were generally responsible for about 1000 of the 20,000 insurgents. So you see the ratio there. You also know that when we’re successful as we have been in Afghanistan in eliminating top al-Qaeda and Taliban people, we also see them coming back today in southern Afghanistan. So you can decapitate the head, but the head comes back many times. We have to stay very vigilant on the intelligence and the military side, continue these operations, but we also John, have to recognize that it’s not only about successful military intelligence. It’s about the hearts and minds, it’s about the politics and it’s about making sure that we continue these successes in Iraq, so that we train the police, we give the national forces up for the Iraqi Army, and they’ll be able to take over responsibility.

John: And that’s the kind of thing that’s underway. Former congressmen and 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer. Thank you.

Tim Roemer: Alright John.

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