MTP Transcript for Jan. 14, 2007

MR. TIM RUSSERT:  Our issues this Sunday: The president admits mistakes in Iraq and outlines a new strategy.

(Videotape)

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH:  I’ve committed more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  What now?  With us, the president’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Congressional reaction is swift and divided. A Democrat for and against.

(Videotape)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D/I-CT):  It’s a plan to win in Iraq, and I believe we still can.

(End videotape)

(Videotape)

SEN. CHRIS DODD (D-CT):  This is tactic in search of a strategy, in my view, and will not bring us a more stable Iraq.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  A Republican for and against.

(Videotape)

SEN. JON KYL (R-AZ):  We at least owe him the opportunity to see whether that strategy can work before immediately attacking it as a policy that is bound to fail.

(End videotape)

(Videotape)

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R-NE):  This speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Senators Dodd, Hagel, Kyl and Lieberman on the Iraq war only on MEET THE PRESS.

Tomorrow America celebrates Martin Luther King Day.  And in our MEET THE PRESS MINUTE, he appeared here 40 years ago.

(Videotape, August 13, 1967)

DR.  MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.:  But I refuse to despair it in this moment.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  But first, the war in Iraq.  The president addressed the nation Wednesday night, and here to discuss his new strategy for the war in Iraq is his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley.

Welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

MR. STEPHEN HADLEY:  Nice to be here, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT:  The president back in June of ‘05 addressed the nation and said this.  Let’s watch.

(Videotape, June 28, 2005, address to the nation)

PRES. BUSH:  Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight.  And sending more Americans would suggest that we intend to stay forever.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Profound difference than what he said on Wednesday night.  Why did the president change his mind?

MR. HADLEY:  Well, in some instances, still, we do want the Iraqis in the lead.  We want them to step up.  They want to step up.  They understand that job one is to get control of Baghdad.  But what our military forces have done and our military commanders have assessed that there is a new Baghdad strategy.  It is the Iraqi government strategy.  It can work.  It needs to be resourced by the Iraqis.  But they’ve made a judgment that the Iraqis simply do not have the wherewithal to get it done.  And therefore the president has made a judgment that, yes, the Iraqis have to be in the lead, it has to be their strategy, but we need to reinforce our troops so we that can be standing with them and to ensure that it succeeds.

MR. RUSSERT:  But the president said in ‘05 that sending more troops would “undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead.” We continue to be a crutch for the Iraqis.

MR. HADLEY:  That is a concern.  One of the things that’s different, I think, from, from that time is that we do have this unity government.  This unity government’s been in, in office about seven months.  They are getting enormous pressure from their people to get the violence down, and that means, really, sectarian violence centered in Baghdad.  They’re responding to that pressure.  They’ve come forward with a plan.  They have made clear that they’re going to increase their forces.  They’re committed to success, but they need our help to succeed.  And it’s important we do that because the alternatives, really, are the continued—the existing strategy, the stay the course, which everybody agrees is not working—that’s failure slow—or simply turning it over to the Iraqis now and withdrawing, redeploying, whatever you call it, and that simply is not going to work because everybody agrees the Iraqis are not up to it.  This is the, the—a strategy that offers the prospect of success as an alternative to either failing slow or failing fast.  And the Americans—one thing we know about the American people, they’re unhappy with this war, they want a new direction—so does the president—but they want to succeed, they don’t want to fail.

MR. RUSSERT:  The reaction of the Iraqi government has been mute.  Here’s The New York Times on Friday, the headline, “In Baghdad, Bush Policy Is Met With Resentment.” The Iraqi government is not saying, “This is great news.  Bring it forward, yes, Americans are coming!” Quite the opposite.

MR. HADLEY:  Well, actually, if you look at a statement that was issued by Prime Minister Maliki’s spokesman, an interview that was given by Barham Salih, who is one of the deputy prime ministers, the statement that came out from the president, Talibani, actually they are welcoming and supportive of the plan.  Prime Minister Maliki said it is part of a common strategy between the United States and Iraq.  One of the interesting things about all those statements is they all say that this is an Iraqi plan to bring security to Baghdad, but they acknowledge they need coalition help and support to do that, and the president is answering that call.

MR. RUSSERT:  Mr. Hadley, you’re betting everything on Prime Minister Maliki, that he can train his Iraqi soldiers, be willing to take on both the Shiites and the Sunni death squads.  And yet, November, you wrote a memo to President Bush that was leaked, and this is what you said about that same man.  “The reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.” That’s two months ago, and now you’ve bet everything on him.

MR. HADLEY:  Well, what we’ve done is we bet everything with the Iraqi people on the unity government that the Iraqi people elected, that was elected pursuant to a constitution which they wrote and adopted.  And that’s exactly what you do, you do when you’re dealing with a democracy, you, you deal with the elective government of that democracy.  And that is the government with which we are dealing.  The president has had a lot of conversations, not just with Prime Minister Maliki.  He has talked this last week to all the other principal leaders in Iraq with the same message:  “Americans, our commitment is not an open-ended commitment.  It is time for the Iraqis to step up.  If they take action, we will support them.” And the reinforcement is critical so that when the Iraqis do set—step up, they will succeed rather than fail.

MR. RUSSERT:  Secretary of Defense Gates was on Capitol Hill and was talking about Mr. Maliki.  And he said that the “Iraqi lawmakers might decide to replace Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, if he failed to take steps to carry out the new plan to regain control of Baghdad.  ‘The first consequence that he has to face is the possibility that he’ll lose his job,’ Mr. Gates said.  ‘There are beginning to be some people around that may say, “I can do better than he’s doing,” in terms of making progress.’” Would the White House welcome a change in leadership in Iraq?

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