Condoleezza Rice on Iraq, Lebanon and Cuba

GREGORY: Secretary Rice, one final point on Iraq, that a lot of people, of course, think about, particularly when there's discussion of civil war: Is it more or less likely now that American troops can come back in sizable numbers by the end of this year?

RICE: The president has always said that what the conditions are on the ground -- whatever the conditions are on the ground, he will cue his decision to those conditions and his commanders will tell him what they need. I think we've demonstrated that this is not a question of troop levels; this is a question of enough troops to do the job. And so the president will make those decisions.

David, the day is coming when the United States will wrap up its military mission there, because we're training Iraqi Security Forces, because the Iraqi political system is now finally a permanent political system. But it would be wrong, at the time when Iraqis are trying to make this transition, to leave then without support. What we must not do is to lose sight of why Iraq is so important. An Iraq that makes this transition to a stable and democratic future is going to be a centerpiece of a Middle East that will not produce the kind of ideologies of hatred that cost us so much in the war on terrorism.

An Iraq, however, that is -- does not have that kind of support and that is left to the likes of al-Qaida in Iraq is undoubtedly to be an Iraq that will cause security problems for us. And so American and Iraqi security are linked, and we need to give them as much support as we can as they make this very difficult transition.

GREGORY: Secretary Rice, as always, thank you.

RICE: Thank you.

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