lily
12-11-2006, 02:48 AM
In fairness I am posting the entire question and answer. My jaw hit the floor though, when Adelman said the highlighted portion. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16095251/page/5/)
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Adelman, the president talks about a secure country, a safe
environment that can govern itself, and an ally in the war on terror. When
Prime Minister Maliki was here with his foreign policy advisers, I asked
them repeatedly, did they think that Hezbollah was a terrorist group. And
they said, "Well, we're not in a position to say-make a comment like that."
The speaker of the parliament of Iraq said the violence was caused by Israel
and Jewish agents. Will Iraq truly be an ally of the United States in the
war on terror, or will it be more closely aligned with Iran?
MR. ADELMAN: I would-I would say that we have to walk before it runs, and
they don't need a foreign policy right now, Tim, with all due respect. They
need some kind of coherence and some kind of ability to run the country,
which they're not doing.
Now, I differ a little bit with my friend Richard Haass in saying that, you
know, we have to structure ourselves to get into the politics of
blamesmanship on this, and I do believe that we, we owe it to the troops
there-and especially to the Iraqis, and-to go one last try to get Baghdad to
turn around. And I believe a surge-not with 6,000, but something like 20,000
to 30,000--some of them coming into the country, some of them in less used
places around the country-and a general there on the ground- probably
different than the generals we have there, to tell you the truth, who have
tried and served and, and very patriotic, but have not got the job done-to
turn it around so that the momentum is our way within six months. Now, if
that doesn't work, then, then we should just get out of there, because then
we're endangering a lot of lives.
Let me make one more point, and that is when Eliot Cohen says that the
implementation of this has been awful, that's an understatement. This Iraqi
report gives an example, Tim, that just breaks your heart. In the
thousand-person U.S. Embassy in Baghdad today, there's six people, six
people who speak fluent Arabic. Now, this is not Chiluba, this is not, you
know, an obscure language. This is one of the great languages of the world.
And out of 1,000, we don't have any more than six people who can speak the
language where they are? How can you, how can the president hear that, how
can anybody in the U.S. government hear that and not be totally ashamed by
the unseriousness of this effort? It also makes the point that in the
Defense Intelligence Agency, less than 10 analysts have been looking at this
insurgency for two years or so. Less than 10. And this is what's killing 100
Americans a month, and 100 Iraqis a day. I mean, it is just-it just breaks
your heart.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Adelman, the president talks about a secure country, a safe
environment that can govern itself, and an ally in the war on terror. When
Prime Minister Maliki was here with his foreign policy advisers, I asked
them repeatedly, did they think that Hezbollah was a terrorist group. And
they said, "Well, we're not in a position to say-make a comment like that."
The speaker of the parliament of Iraq said the violence was caused by Israel
and Jewish agents. Will Iraq truly be an ally of the United States in the
war on terror, or will it be more closely aligned with Iran?
MR. ADELMAN: I would-I would say that we have to walk before it runs, and
they don't need a foreign policy right now, Tim, with all due respect. They
need some kind of coherence and some kind of ability to run the country,
which they're not doing.
Now, I differ a little bit with my friend Richard Haass in saying that, you
know, we have to structure ourselves to get into the politics of
blamesmanship on this, and I do believe that we, we owe it to the troops
there-and especially to the Iraqis, and-to go one last try to get Baghdad to
turn around. And I believe a surge-not with 6,000, but something like 20,000
to 30,000--some of them coming into the country, some of them in less used
places around the country-and a general there on the ground- probably
different than the generals we have there, to tell you the truth, who have
tried and served and, and very patriotic, but have not got the job done-to
turn it around so that the momentum is our way within six months. Now, if
that doesn't work, then, then we should just get out of there, because then
we're endangering a lot of lives.
Let me make one more point, and that is when Eliot Cohen says that the
implementation of this has been awful, that's an understatement. This Iraqi
report gives an example, Tim, that just breaks your heart. In the
thousand-person U.S. Embassy in Baghdad today, there's six people, six
people who speak fluent Arabic. Now, this is not Chiluba, this is not, you
know, an obscure language. This is one of the great languages of the world.
And out of 1,000, we don't have any more than six people who can speak the
language where they are? How can you, how can the president hear that, how
can anybody in the U.S. government hear that and not be totally ashamed by
the unseriousness of this effort? It also makes the point that in the
Defense Intelligence Agency, less than 10 analysts have been looking at this
insurgency for two years or so. Less than 10. And this is what's killing 100
Americans a month, and 100 Iraqis a day. I mean, it is just-it just breaks
your heart.