Sen Norm Coleman would seem to indicate that is slowly changing. Coleman use to be a D, is a squishy R and has been a very reliable Bush vote in the US Senate.
When asked about this bill, Sen Coleman said his phone calls were running 30-1 against this bill. Said the Border Security measures would take at least 18 months to get fully in place and no one was going trust DC on this issue until those things were done.
Wallace with Patraeus:
1. Asks about the soldier ID cards being found; got some leads, but not “hot” leads....continue to pursue our troops, and will not give up.
2. Surge: Full complement of troops there now; up to now just “shaping operations”, now we have full troop count enables us to launch ops into sanctuaries that have AQ, and the surge is ahead of where we thought we would be in some cases, behind in others. Anbar is a key example of successful operations.
3. Pentagon quarterly report indicated no measurable success to date; level of violence unchanged during surge. How come this is so dissapointing? One metric that US tracks is sectarian violence, which has gone down — then up — but is trending back down again. As we go on offensive, the enemy responds — as anticipated. Overall mixed perspective, serious work ahead still.
4. Reid comment questioning his credibility. SHows quote of Reid, the america hater, and how Reid knows more than the General. Patreaus says he is forthright — he bases his assessments on personal observation. The fact is there are signs of normalcy, kids are playing soccer, markets open, etc. He tells both sides of the story, and why shouldn’t he report the good with the bad? How does it feel when DC says you are out of touch; Patraeus very political and does not take the bait. We are occupied with our work in Bagdad, don’t need to play the stupid DC games.
5. Shows clip of President Bush and then another pentagon report trying to imply that the President is a liar. Patraeus comes right back: extreme Suni’s ARE AQ, so keep it in the right bin and stop playing the games of sectarian violence. Very appropriate to emphasis of AQ in Iraq and provoking the Iraqi’s into sectarian violence.
6. Some sectarian violence for sure, and we are trying to break that cycle of violence so the political solutions can move foreward. Bottom up political process is beginning to work and that is promising.
7. A good interview overall, the General portrayed the situation on all fronts — the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think Wallace did a pretty good job of questioning and gave the General lots of time to explain the WHOLE situation. September progress coming up after the break.