MTP Transcript for Jan. 14, 2007

MR. HADLEY:  No.  We have—as the president has said, we are dealing with the unity government that the Iraqis have put in place.  Prime Minister Maliki heads that government.  The message we’ve sent to that government, “It is time to act.” What I think Bob Gates was talking about is the Iraqi people are impatient.  They are making clear that they’re tired of the violence.  They want the situation in Baghdad calmed down, and they are right to do so, because until the violence in Baghdad comes down there will not be an opportunity for the political reconciliation that everybody recognizes has to come if we’re going to have stability over the long term.

MR. RUSSERT:  So you support Mr. Maliki 100 percent?

MR. HADLEY:  The president supports the unity government headed by Prime Minister Maliki, he supports the Baghdad security program that they have come up with, and he has—he has ordered reinforcements so we can stand with the Iraqis so that program can succeed, because that is the critical element if we’re going to have success in Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT:  One of the leading Shiite clerics in Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr, has a death squad or a militia of 60,000 men, at least.  You warned in your memo that he had to be closed down.  Is Mr. Maliki willing to take on Mr. Sadr and eliminate his death squads?

MR. HADLEY:  Prime Minister Maliki and his government have made a series of statements over the last month or two, and one of the things that characterizes those is they increasingly seem to recognize the problem that militias pose.  And these particularly are elements in militias that are operating outside the law.  And if you look at Prime Minister Maliki’s speech of a week ago Saturday on Army Day in Iraq, he said very clearly that this Baghdad security plan was going to be adequately resourced, that the security forces will have a free hand to go anywhere in the city, there will be no safe havens, including Sadr City, and that they are going to bring the rule of law to all Iraqis regardless, regardless of ethnicity or religious.  I think the government understands that the time—it’s not really anymore about Sunni against Shia, it’s about those who support the rule of law against extremists who want to stand outside the rule of law.

MR. RUSSERT:  So Maliki will take on Mr. Sadr?

MR. HADLEY:  He has said he is going to take on militias, that’s exactly right.  That’s what he has said.

MR. RUSSERT:  And that includes Sadr?

MR. HADLEY:  That includes the Mahdi army.

MR. RUSSERT:  And if Sadr takes away his support from Maliki in the parliament, Maliki may lose his government.

MR. HADLEY:  No.  Actually, the, the government—I think there are about 30 or 40 members that are affiliated with, with Sadr in the 275-member parliament.  There is emerging, Tim, a, a, a group of moderates across the political spectrum that is beginning to work together to support this unity government.  That’s a good thing, and we want to encourage it.  And that’s really the base that we hope Prime Minister Maliki will look to for his support.

MR. RUSSERT:  He could govern without the support of Sadr?

MR. HADLEY:  Yes, he can.

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me bring you back to the speech on Wednesday night when the president talked to the nation about how long the commitment to Iraq might or might not last.  Here’s the president Wednesday night.

(Videotape, Wednesday)

President GEORGE W. BUSH:  I have made it clear to the prime minister, and Iraq’s other leaders, that America’s commitment is not open-ended.  If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people.  And it will lose the support of the Iraqi people.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Not open-ended.  What does that mean?

MR. HADLEY:  That means, as, as we all know, he—the president understands the American people are tired of this war.  It has cost enormously in terms of time and treasure, and our men and women in uniform that—America’s finest.  He also understands, though, the American people want a new approach, so does he.  But he wants an approach that will succeed.  And what he—and, and he understands and has said very clearly that critical to that will be the Iraqi government taking responsibility.  That’s what we’re encouraging.  That’s what we’re trying to encourage and empower them to see.  That’s what he’s doing.  And he recognizes that both because of the patience of the American people, but as he said, the patience of the Iraqi people that the Iraqi government needs to step up now.  And quite frankly, we think the Iraqi government understands that, as well.

MR. RUSSERT:  And if they don’t?

MR. HADLEY:  The—we think that we are at the start of a process.  We think the indications—it’s going to take some time for this process to get going.  Iraqis are going to have to reinforce their troops.  We’re going to have to reinforce ours.  But we think already we’re seeing the Iraqi government take some steps.  They’ve appointed a commander for their Baghdad security plan and two deputies.  They have made clear in prime minister’s speech that, that they—those commanders will be able to act in a nonpartisan and nonsectarian way.  And they’re already beginning to take some action.  They’ve been engaging insurgents on Haifa Street in Baghdad, they’ve been going against some Mahdi army, both in Baghdad and in the, in the—one of the other cities near Najaf.  So we think that the, the government is actually stepping forward and take action, and we ought to let them move forward with this plan.

MR. RUSSERT:  When the president says it’s not an open-ended commitment, look at what he said just as recently as November of last year, two months ago.  Let’s listen.

(Videotape, November 17, 2006):

PRES. BUSH:  We’re not leaving until this job is done, until Iraq can govern, sustain and defend itself.

(End videotape)

(Videotape, November 6, 2006):

PRES. BUSH:  Retreat from Iraq before the job is done would embolden the enemy and make this country less secure.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  So is—it’s not open-ended or we’re not leaving until the job is done, which is it?

MR. HADLEY:  I think what it is, is we have to succeed.  And I think you need to step back and look what’s happening in the region as a whole.  You’ve got a struggle between forces supporting freedom and democracy against extremists and those who support terror, fronted by Iran.  And what the president understands—and I think the American people understand—is if we fail in Iraq and do not succeed, what’s going to happen to that effort?  What’s going to happen to someone like the, the—Siniora, Prime Minister Siniora in Lebanon, a government elected by the people being pressured by Hezbollah?  What’s going to happen to Hamas?

MR. RUSSERT:  But it’s—but Mr. Hadley, it’s not up to us, it’s up to the Iraqis.

MR. HADLEY:  It’s up to us and the Iraqis standing together to succeed.  Because if we don’t, those who support us, those who support us in the war on terror will be discredited, the terrorists will be empowered, and our traditional allies are going to raise a question about whether we have staying power in the region to deal with things like Iran.

MR. RUSSERT:  During the campaign, when the Democrats said there should be no open-ended commitment, they were accused of cutting and running.  There’s a suggestion now that the administration is positioning itself for a policy that’s been called “cut and blame,” that the Iraqis now have to come forward, and if they don’t, “Sorry, we gave you your best chance.  We’re out of here.”

MR. HADLEY:  That would be a strategy if you were going to start to withdraw or redeploy, just basically give it to the Iraqis.  That’s not the president’s strategy because his commanders have told him that if we give it to the Iraqis now, they don’t have the forces they need to succeed.  And that’s why the president’s taken a different approach.  Iraqis in the lead, but we standing with them and beside them in order to ensure they succeed, because both of us have an interest in success.  The costs of failure are just too high.

MR. RUSSERT:  So we’re not—our policy is still, I want to be clear on this, we will not leave Iraq until they have a stable, secure government that can govern itself?

MORE FROM MEET THE PRESS

Meet the Press Section Front

Nov. 8: Casey, Barbour, Rendell, roundtable, Brokaw Nov. 1: Tim Geithner, David Plouffe, roundtable Oct. 25: Cornyn, Schumer, Burnett, Sorkin, roundtable Oct. 18: Jarrett, Dodd, Kyl, Shriver, Podesta Oct. 11: Levin, Graham, McCaffrey, Myers, roundtable Oct. 4: Ambassador Susan Rice, roundtable Sept. 27: Bill Clinton, Paterson, Kyl, Webb Sept. 20: President Obama, Sen. Graham, Rep. Boehner, roundtable Sept. 13: Durbin, Cornyn, Dean, Gingrich, roundtable Sept. 6: Axelrod, roundtable Meet the Press Section Front   Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: