Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq

Exclusive: Former Secretary Of State Says More Troops Are Not The Answer

(CBS)  The United States is losing the war in Iraq but sending more troops to Baghdad is not the best way to change course, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Face The Nation.

Powell said he agreed with the assessment of the Iraq Study Group co-chairmen, Lee Hamilton and James Baker, that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating," and he also agreed with recently-confirmed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that the U.S. is not winning the war.

"So if it's grave and deteriorating and we're not winning, we are losing," Powell told Bob Schieffer in an exclusive interview. "We haven't lost. And this is the time, now, to start to put in place the kinds of strategies that will turn this situation around."

President George W. Bush is considering several options for a new strategy in Iraq. The most likely choice would be to send tens of thousands of additional troops for an indefinite period to quickly secure Baghdad.

A 3,500-man brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to Kuwait soon after the holidays, CBS News correspondent David Martin reported on Friday. The troops would be available immediately should the president order a surge into Iraq.

There are about 134,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now.

Powell, also a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not see the military benefit of flooding Baghdad with American troops.

"I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work," he said, adding that the Iraqi government and security forces must take over.

"It is the D.C. police force that guards Washington, D.C., not the troops that are stationed at Fort Myer," Powell said. "And in Baghdad, you need a police force to do that, and in the other cities, you need a police force to do that, and not the American troops."

Powell also doubted that the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are large enough to support such an operation.

"The current active Army is not large enough and the Marine Corps is not large enough for the kinds of missions they're being asked to perform," Powell said. "We need to let both the Army and the Marine Corps grow in size, in my military judgment."

Asked directly what the U.S. should do in Iraq, Powell said:

"I think that what we should do is to work with the Iraqi government, press them on the political peace, do everything we can to provide equipment, advisers, and whatever the Iraqi armed forces need to become more competent, and to train their leaders so that those leaders realize their responsibility to the government."

Powell, who as a member of the Bush Administration pushed the international community to sanction the invasion of Iraq, said that we are not safer now after nearly four years of fighting.

"I think we are a little less safe, in the sense that we don't have the same force structure available for other problems," Powell said. "I think we have been somewhat constrained in our ability to influence events elsewhere."

[rmrwash]

Speak now or forever hold your peace. Another "In Retrospect", and polite FTN commentary will not suffice.

You decried %u201Cthe sons of the powerful and well placed%u2026managed to wangle slots into Reserve and Guard Units%u201D and then you went on to serve one of these sons.

You criticized the prosecution of the Vietnam War: %u201CBack home, the administration was trying to conduct the war with as little inconvenience to the country as possible%u2026. Taxes to finance the war had not been raised. Better-off kids beat the draft with college deferments.%u201D Now, you sit silently.

You wrote %u201CDon%u2019t be stampeded by first reports, Don%u2019t let your judgments run ahead of your facts. And, even with supposed facts in hand, question them if they do not add up. Something deeper and wiser than bits of data inform our instincts. I also learned that it is best to get the facts out as soon as possible, even when new facts contradict the old. Untidy truth is better than smooth lies%u201D We await the %u201CUntidy Truth%u201D.

%u201CIf I never have to parachute again, that will be fine with me, yet there was never any doubt in my mind that I would do what had to be done.%u201D It's time to do what has to be done.

Saving the truth for %u201CMy American Journey Part II%u201D isn%u2019t good enough. You owe those you helped place in harms way, the %u201Cuntidy truth%u201D. You owe it to
them%u2026today, not in your autobiography.

[kata8]

Evryone must watch this video and evidence concerning 9/11 the link is below.
http://911truthdvd.com/

Boston Air Traffic Controller Says 9/11 An Inside Job


http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2006/141206trafficcontroller.htm

[kata8]

In Palestine 755,000 Christians became refugees because of the Israel war for land in Palestine. Saudis are the most dangerous radical Muslims in the Middle East they are funding schools that are preaching the strangest radical views of Islam, which preaches hatred toward Christians, and classifying them as infidels. Eventually, Christians will no longer exist in the Middle East because this administration decided to pay back the Saudi%u2019s debt of finishing off Iraq and fulfilling the promise to the Zionist Jews to push the Palestinians out of their country. If this administration purpose was to create a democratic society in the Middle East, why do they keep sending the Christians out of their country in all their past wars, and not protecting the minorities of the Christians that are left behind? Why no one realizes that these wars waged by US on the Middle East are radicalizing Islam to fulfill the Saudi%u2019s dream, which is to push all the Christians out of their country? When the US and Britain wages war on the Middle East the Muslims take out their anger and aggression on burning down churches and killing Christians. Who is protecting the Christians? If these things are not taken into consideration then you should not be there in the Middle East. I feel sick from what this administration and others have done in the past toward the Middle East. Prior to Israel created and the Saudis becoming wealthy from oil, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived side by side in peace.

[kata8]

What did these wars do but radicalize Muslims in most of the Middle East, in fact, Christian children of female gender are being targeted by both some American soldiers and Muslims fanatics they are being raped, brutalized, and kidnapped for large ransoms to pay for the continued violence in the Middle East. For example, a young Christian girl was kidnapped and the kidnapper asked for a large ransom of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars while the kidnapper awaits their money she was gang rapped. As a result, the girl was distraught and when she was given the chance to speak to her parents, she told them not to pay the ransom she was later found dead because she killed herself.

Is this administration doing the job for the stupid Saudi%u2019s that are trying to push all Christians out of their country? Christians are leaving in large numbers from Iraq, but this is not the first time Lebanon went through the same thing. In Lebanon, it used to be 60% Christians that were over turned after the war and civil war in the 1980%u2019s to 40 % prior to the recent bombing by Israel against Lebanon.

[rashw62225]

The present gover. is more beholding to radical factions like Sadr's militia. He has been waiting for bloodletting and now he has the opening. Where is al-Sistani's clerical call for him tThere is some good in what Colin Powell says. But he fits more on the side of continuing to win and finish in Iraq. THe problem is that the headline editors desire to list his time as "says were losing" or does not want troop increase. He wants us most of all to win as we have opportunity to do so. Not to leave and threaten IraQ BY DOING so. If our strategy in Japan and Germany was to leave them to their problems where would be the honor we now have for reconstruction.? We must continue to support the votes of the people. o back off.
Let's spend more time analyzing and asking men like Powell about the Iraq gover.'s problems not the US gover. problems.

[rashw62225]

The present gover. is more beholding to radical factions like Sadr's militia. He has been waiting for bloodletting and now he has the opening. Where is al-Sistani's clerical call for him tThere is some good in what Colin Powell says. But he fits more on the side of continuing to win and finish in Iraq. THe problem is that the headline editors desire to list his time as "says were losing" or does not want troop increase. He wants us most of all to win as we have opportunity to do so. Not to leave and threaten IraQ BY DOING so. If our strategy in Japan and Germany was to leave them to their problems where would be the honor we now have for reconstruction.? We must continue to support the votes of the people. o back off.
Let's spend more time analyzing and asking men like Powell about the Iraq gover.'s problems not the US gover. problems. The people in this country just voted to change our govr. and the Iraqi poeople deserve their next chance to vote. If our new gover. from 2006 does not do better in Iraq most of us will vote them out too.
It is a political problem in Iraq and the violent are seizing the opportunity. Some of the violent are part of the political makeup. Not just the Sadr militia but also th Sunni insurgents are political leaders with violence as their platform.

[rashw62225]

The present gover. is more beholding to radical factions like Sadr's militia. He has been waiting for bloodletting and now he has the opening. Where is al-Sistani's clerical call for him tThere is some good in what Colin Powell says. But he fits more on the side of continuing to win and finish in Iraq. THe problem is that the headline editors desire to list his time as "says were losing" or does not want troop increase. He wants us most of all to win as we have opportunity to do so. Not to leave and threaten IraQ BY DOING so. If our strategy in Japan and Germany was to leave them to their problems where would be the honor we now have for reconstruction.? We must continue to support the votes of the people. o back off.
Let's spend more time analyzing and asking men like Powell about the Iraq gover.'s problems not the US gover. problems. The people in this country just voted to change our govr. and the Iraqi poeople deserve their next chance to vote. If our new gover. from 2006 does not do better in Iraq most of us will vote them out too.
It is a political problem in Iraq and the violent are seizing the opportunity. Some of the violent are part of the political makeup. Not just the Sadr militia but also th Sunni insurgents are political leaders with violence as their platform.

[rashw62225]

The present gover. is more beholding to radical factions like Sadr's militia. He has been waiting for bloodletting and now he has the opening. Where is al-Sistani's clerical call for him tThere is some good in what Colin Powell says. But he fits more on the side of continuing to win and finish in Iraq. THe problem is that the headline editors desire to list his time as "says were losing" or does not want troop increase. He wants us most of all to win as we have opportunity to do so. Not to leave and threaten IraQ BY DOING so. If our strategy in Japan and Germany was to leave them to their problems where would be the honor we now have for reconstruction.? We must continue to support the votes of the people. o back off.
Let's spend more time analyzing and asking men like Powell about the Iraq gover.'s problems not the US gover. problems. The people in this country just voted to change our govr. and the Iraqi poeople deserve their next chance to vote. If our new gover. from 2006 does not do better in Iraq most of us will vote them out too.
It is a political problem in Iraq and the violent are seizing the opportunity. Some of the violent are part of the political makeup. Not just the Sadr militia but also th Sunni insurgents are political leaders with violence as their platform.

[randalds]

Bravo mh4cbs1! Well stated!

[kata8]

Hello everyone!

Why should Bush be prosecuted?

http://www.serendipity.li/impeachment.htm

[mh4cbs1]

changeit4:

You are really in the dark if you think a Republican is President. They may call themselves Republican, and wave the flag and spew tough-talk slogans at us. But this NeoCon gang is a special clique that has hijacked the GOP.

Even my Republican family (and I mean they never voted Democrat in their lives until 2006), became awake enough to realize that these War Criminal lying thugs are not typical Republicans, and belong in JAIL.

Even the Republican Congressmen are wising up and distancing themselves from these NeoCon SOBs that are running our country into the ground in an attempt to establish their imperial 'New World Order'.

WAKE UP! Throw these War Criminals in JAIL

[mh4cbs1]

notblue:

What do you mean "republicans and democrats saw the same intelligence"?? What planet have you been living on?

The PNAC NeoCons who Hijacked the GOP LIED us into this DISASTER. The Death and Destruction is due to the ambitions of Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz gang, and their puppet, Mr. War-President-Wanna-Be G.W.Bush.

Don't you remember the aluminum tubes? The Niger Uranium, the Mushroom Clouds, the mobile labs, the fake Al Queda links, curveball the "intelligence source"? Don't you remember the "we know where the WMDs are". Remember why the "Office of stragtegic Plans" was set up in the DoD by Rummy. Why Cheney was constantly over at CIA pressuring the career officers? Why Colin Powell's source (from Cheney gang)had even more LIES that what he ended up agreeing to spew at the UN.

Didn't you read the Downing Street memos? The PNAC position paper of 2000? How about books by Scott Ritter, Terry Drumheller, Richard Clarke?

Don't give us your garbage about "intelligence". It was one big Cheney-orchestrated LIE.

And the CHENEY/BUSH LIES have cost THOUSANDS of LIVES. Like 100 9-11s in dead humans. Like we are less safe. Like Osama is Free. Like $350 BILLION so far. Like 3,000 dead troups, thousands more maimed for life.

Love America?? Support the Troops?? Then
JAIL BUSH & JAIL CHENEY & Throw Away the Key

[harothberg]

Bob Schieffer did his viewers, and the truth, a disservice by lobbing such softball questions at him. It was a though he had nothing to do with going to Iraq, and trying to treat him as some sort of "above it all" guy.

Mr. Schieffer, did it every occur to you to ask Powell outright, what responsibility does HE take in this mess?!

You're losing your edge Bob, get someone in your place that can ask the tough questions.

[j-whitman]

As the White House puts more distance between them & Powell -- Neo-Cons are distancing themselves from SOB Bush.

[valendug]

3000 dead troops just to steal oil does not constitute a war, does it republiCONS? Just what is your plan besides more death and cut and run, just what you said the liberals would do?

[randalds]

So what is your great strategy for the Iraq situation? Or are you like the rest of the Liberals and just complaining because it is a repub in office. List your ideas and let's get down to a real discussion of what the consequences may or may not be.

Posted by getserious1 at 03:08 PM : Dec 18, 2006

Mine is to admit Bush screwed the pooch on this and give the Iraqi's a firm date that we'll be gone by, if they are ready or not. Somewhere between 6 and 12 months. Then do it. Now special circumstances or special conditions, just get the fu*ck out.

Then we can concentrate on what's even more important, putting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz (among others) into prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. No matter how we decide to get out, we must never EVER forget the scum that got us here.

[valendug]

Colin Powell was the lead liar who took us to war. Just another in a long line of inept black "uncle toms".

[gunnerv1]

dude622 All Pols. are crooked in one way or the other. Cons/Libs are all the same. Vote for tyhe "Better Man". Vote for the "Lesser of the two Evils" Vote for your Wallet, Vote your mind. It really dont matter who you vote for, it's ingrain to the systems.

[frankly6]

getserious1

I'll give you a few:

The energy departments nuclear experts told the administration that the Aluminum tubes could not be used to enrich uranium but the administration decided to use it anyway it it's case for war.

The CIA told Bush and co. well in advance that the Niger yellow cake documents were forgeries but they decided to use it anyway in making the case for war.

The CIA debunked the Sadam/Al Qaeda connection but again the Bush administration decided to use it in making a case for war.

[jackoflefty]

I love the mindset of "Victory, victory, we must have victory. Those of you who don't want it are traitors and helping the enemy..." Tell me something, Notblue and friends, what is victory in Iraq? What does it look like? How will we know it when it happens? Vietnam could define victory. So could Korea (sort of). Certainly the world wars. Heck, we could define victory in Grenada. But, what do you think it means in Iraq - in a way that can be put into action and accomplished in the real world, not the fairyland of Neoconia? Stand up a democracy? OK, should it be Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, a combination or what? *** bells, they can't figure it out themselves. How about getting rid of all the terrorists in the country? Is a squad of ethnic cleansing Shia included? Ethnic cleansing Sunni? All the foreign insurgents - which I gather only account for 3-5% of all the activity? Is it providing electricity and running water back at the same levels as when Saddam was in power (and in check by the constant flyovers)? What if there is an election and the outcome is an Islamist state, like Hamas and Palestine? Is that victory enough for you?

Colin Powell stated much of this yesterday (less my frothing) and it all goes back to his strategic approach: you better know what you're outcome is. Otherwise, you're doing nothing but sending Americans to die for an abstract idea.