This is a transcript of the entire exchange between Senator Richard (Dick) Lugar (R-Indiana) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing 10:00 AM Thursday 11 January, 2007. A website for this meeting, titled The Administration's Plan for Iraq (has just moved from Jan 16 '07) carries streaming video of the entire proceeding. I prepared this transcript as best I could from a video recording. From Jan 2003 through Dec. 2006 Senator Lugar was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as of Jan 2006 is the ranking Republican leader on the committee. His website has a section elevating the Iraq policy debate with
a batch of policy letters on Iraq.
Interesting topics: dissecting the facts behind David Brooks' column titled "The Fog over Iraq," in the NYT 11 Jan 2007 (which may be more accessible here in the IHT); the 'side surge' of 4,000 American troops to Anbar province; the 1,100 Sons of Anbar.
[Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Indiana)]
Thank you Mr. Chairman. Secretary Rice, in the New York Times today, columnist David Brooks, in a column called The Fog over Iraq, presents information that I simply wanted your comment. Because you have indicated that you have visited with Prime Minister Maliki. And the article by David Brooks references the meeting of our President with Prime Minister Maliki on November 30th, in which purportedly Maliki presented a plan in which our troops would go to the periphery of Baghdad, would fight off insurgents---Sunni insurgents or whoever---trying to penetrate Baghdad. But the Iraqi army and police, including Shi'ites and Kurds, principally, would take over the responsibility of attempting to clear the city. Essentially, Brooks says President Bush rejected that plan---or our government did and the President as the head of it has indicated this---and decided that indeed we would do the opposite. American troops, and the additional troops, would come into Baghdad, would be embedded in the nine police districts. And would in fact be more heavily involved, whether door-to-door, and there certainly are disputes over whether that's the case, the thought is no, not door-to-door, that the Shiites go door-to-door, essentially, and that we are back, in the background, advising, and supporting, and so forth.
But the article goes on to suggest that in fact, or gives the impression that, Makili and Kurds and the Shi'ites had at least an idea of creating their own kind of stability. Now from our own standpoint, this might have rejected the Sunnis as a partner in the process, and that's led to greater destabilization of the country as a whole.
Let me just ask for your comment, as to whether this is the sequence of events that transpired into the plan that the President gave last night. And what are the strengths and dangers of that.
[Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice]
Yes, Senator Lugar, the core of the Maliki plan has really been preserved here. This really is based on his plan.
It is absolutely the case that the Iraqis have wanted to have responsibility for their own problem, to have their troops under their command, and to move out. When Prime Minister Maliki presented the plan, he wanted our people to look at it with his military people, to see how quickly this could be accelerated, so that he could go and take care of the sectarian problem in Baghdad.
The fact is, it could not be accelerated quickly enough with only Iraqi forces in order to meet the timeline that he really felt he had in terms of dealing with the Baghdad problem. And so, out of this planning process came, from our generals, the view that we needed to augment their forces as embeds---as, by the way, the Baker-Hamilton commission recommends---as people who can help them in a sense with on-the-job training, who can help them to kind of solidify their ability to go after this. But the Iraqis continue to press that they really need to be the ones interfacing with their population in a major way. They need to be the ones to deliver the stability that is needed.
I think you will see that in a relatively brief period of time, as their forces develop, they will take on more and more. And as the President said last night, the thought is they would have all their forces by November [ed? meaning, 2007?]. But there was a gap in time between the time that they need to get Baghdad under control and having the capability to do it. Even bringing, as they are, their best and most reliable army forces from around the country.
So that's the difference. But I don't believe that it was ever really the prime minister's intention that it would be Shi'ia and Kurds, only. I think he understands that one of the problems that they have is that the Sunni population feels that the Iraqi government is not even-handed in dealing with death squads.
[Sen. Dick Lugar]
What can you tell us about favorable reception of some of the sheiks, in Anbar province, of our new policies. Can you describe that situation.
[Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice]
Yes. Well, the last time that there was some kind of report about Anbar, remember some of the reporting as being the tremendous difficulties in Anbar. And it is a difficult place because it is the epicenter of al-Qaeda. Now what you will hear from our commanders in the area, and also I have heard directly from my provincial reconstruction team leader, a very seasoned diplomat, is that the sheiks have essentially gotten tired of al-Qaeda, and want them out. They do not believe that we can do that alone. They have begun to recruit their own young men, to be trained to be a force against the foreign invaders. They have for instance sent eleven hundred young men to Jordan, to train for something that they call the Sons of Anbar, to come back; they will recruit more and send them. This is also part of a success, we believe, of a policy with regional neighbors, who have been involved in the Sunni outreach piece. It is into that Anbar that we believe it is important to surge both civilian and military assets. And so when the President talks about four thousand additional forces into Anbar, this is not because of a sectarian problem, this is because we think we may be able to support this local effort against al-Qaeda and secondly, to surge resources into Anbar.
To be very frank, the chairman asked me if I was confident about the Iraqi government. [ed: Refers to earlier question from Sen. Joseph Biden] I am confident that they want to do this. I am also one who knows there have been times when they haven't performed in the past. And one of the things that they've got to perform better on is getting economic resources into some of the Sunni areas, particularly into Anbar. And so we are also going to increase the number of provincial reconstruction teams in Anbar to help with that process.
[Sen. Dick Lugar]
Thank you.
