US Ambassador To Iraq: Situation Not "Hopeless"

MSNBC:

AMB. CROCKER: It is certainly the case that the surge by itself does not fix the problem. The surge buys time for a political process to get some legs under it, buys time for what Secretary Powell describes rightly as the buildup of Iraqi security force capabilities. The Iraqis are very much in this fight, as you know. They are taking casualties at a much higher rate than, than our forces are in Baghdad and elsewhere, and in the process, clearly, clearly learning a tremendous amount about how to deal with complex security situations. How, how well and thoroughly they assimilate all this, again, we're going to have to see. But it's giving them the opportunity. And then, of course, the process of reconciliation is key, and I--and we talked about that a few minutes ago. I think there's, you know, there's frustration on some levels, an absence of progress rather clearly in the legislative arena.

On the other hand, we are seeing the leadership able to come together at a time of really grave crisis, after the Samarra bombing, and agree who the enemy is, agree what the strategy is, and agree on a way forward. So, again, it's, it's a mixed picture, by certainly by not any means a hopeless one.

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