Meet the Press had Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. Central Command on this morning. It was a startling interview for several reasons, first: Abizaid is extremely impressive and a great spokesman for our mission in Iraq. Why don’t we hear more from him? Second: Tim Russert asked only negative questions, did not have a single good word to say about the mission or what we have accomplished. John Kerry himself could not have asked a string of more negative, loaded questions. Fortunately, Abizaid wasn’t going to let his BS go unanswered.
Here are some, er, lowlights…
MR. RUSSERT: Why haven’t you and the Iraqis been able to secure the
borders? Why are they so porous?GEN. ABIZAID: Well, I think we could ask the same question about the
United States border with Mexico. It’s a very difficult thing to do to
secure and make a border absolutely safe and hermetically sealed that’s over
2,200 kilometers long.MR. RUSSERT: You said on Wednesday, General, “I think we will need more troops than we currently have to secure the elections process in Iraq that will probably take place in the end of January.” Where will those troops come from?
GEN. ABIZAID: Well, Tim, if people would look at the entire quote, they’d see that I said in the next sentence that those troops would come from Iraq. And when I say from Iraq, I mean Iraqis. We’re building up an additional 25,000 Iraqis in the armed forces, and we look to them to be able to help secure the election process in conjunction with American forces.
MR. RUSSERT: I want to ask you about a report that received a lot of attention here in the United States, and that was “A classified National Intelligence Estimate prepared for” the president back “in late July” which “spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq….” according to The New York Times. “The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war.” The best case was tenuous stability. Is that an accurate estimate of the situation in Iraq?
GEN. ABIZAID: No. I don’t think it’s an accurate estimate. I have read the estimate. I think it’s overly pessimistic.