BAGHDAD, Iraq
Better Days Ahead For Baghdad?
No. 2 U.S. Commander In Iraq Says Surge And Change In Strategy Are Making A Difference
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Play CBS Video Video Eye To Eye: Gen Odierno
Gen. Ray Odierno gives Katie a walking tour of Baghdad and explains how much better it is to live there.
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Video Revitalizing Baghdad
The U.S. is using a new approach to securing Baghdad, working with the Iraqi army and police and encouraging economic growth. Gen. Raymond Odierno tells Katie Couric that early results are promising.
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Video Deadly New Weapon In Iraq
Armor-piercing hand grenades have become a favorite al Qaeda weapon in Iraq. There's virtually no defense against them. Lara Logan reports.
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Photo
Katie Couric with U.S. General Raymond Odierno. (CBS)
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"I'm still not happy with the level of security," Gen. Raymond Odierno tells CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Katie Couric. "The places we’re going are in good shape, but there are still areas that aren't."
But Odierno's most critical battle may be the one he faces in the capital of Baghdad - a city that's a shell of its former self.
Of the 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq for the surge, more than 26,000 were deployed to secure Baghdad. But since January, there's been a new strategy: Iraqi army and police work with U.S. forces in dozens of joint security stations - small police stations scattered through the area.
"What we did is, when we were on the outskirts, we would drive in every day to conduct patrols. kind of like taking a trip through the city. Now you're here permanently; you can walk outside,” Odierno says.
"With Iraqi forces," adds Couric.Eye To Eye: Gen. Raymond Odierno
"But so people get used to us. They get confidence in us - and, more importantly, it builds confidence in the Iraqi security forces," Odierno said.
The Iraqis know the neighborhood; the Americans have the know-how and the gear.
In one of the poorest sections of the city, residents are particularly vulnerable to militants and criminals who may want to recruit or exploit them. There are simple signs of life that Odierno says are good signs.
"Something as simple as sweeping it up is a positive?" asks Couric.
"It shows confidence," Odierno says. "Before security, they didn't care."
But there's more to this than sweeping up trash. U.S. reconstruction teams have doled out almost $600,000 in grants in east Baghdad alone to reopen businesses like bookstores at the city's famous Mutanabi market, which was nearly destroyed last March by a car bomb that killed 54.
Why was it important for this street to reopen and books to be sold in Baghdad?
"It's practically the most important thing. It's how we communicate,"
says a bookseller.
Odierno took Couric across the river to Haifa Street, the scene of an intense and important battle earlier this year.
Now it's a military public works project. Concrete barricades that keep car bombers out have been painted by local Iraqis. At a nearby market, the daily hustle and bustle of life is being seen and heard again.
U.S. Army Col. Bryan Roberts, of the 1st Cavalry Division, explains how the market has changed.
"Just the sheer number of stores that are open now compared to even last month. So January, February, the market was not open at all. Then in March, a few stores. In April, a few more. There are over a thousand stores open here now."
But alongside the smell of olives and Middle Eastern bread, there's the continued threat of violence.
One shopkeeper told Couric he did feel safer, but was still afraid of drive-by shootings.
An 11-year-old said he wasn't scared, and was surprisingly casual about the latest incident in his neighborhood.
"Yesterday a little kid got killed; got shot right here,: he said.
"A little kid?" asks Couric.
"A baby," he replies through a translator. How? "Small arms fire between two groups and she got caught in the middle."
The city is still rife with sectarian violence, al Qaeda, militias and criminal gangs. This past Saturday, four people were killed in a random shooting; one person was killed, and one wounded by a mortar attack. A roadside bomb wounded three Iraqi policemen, and scattered around the city, the bodies of 15 people were found. But that's a significant drop from last year, when an average of 85 people a day were being killed here.
"We've seen a reduction in incidents. We've seen a reduction in car bombs and truck bombs. We've seen a reduction in explosive IEDs in Baghdad. So the signs are good," says Odierno.
And as for the state of the Iraqi army?
"It'll take us a while longer to continue to get them to the strength necessary and trained at the level that we expect them to be at in order to maintain that control," says Odierno. "But the key piece that we are seeing is the fact that that populace is rejecting those troops, and that's the first step."
This is psychological warfare, Baghdad style. It’s an effort to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people by turning them against extremists - and convincing them that U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are here to keep them safe and improve their lives.
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See all 62 CommentsDoes it take this long to train our young recruits that we are sending to Iraq? Doubtful, since among the dead we see 18 and 19 yr olds. Why is it taking so much longer to train Iraqis? It''s been 4 years, that they continually haven''t been trained well enough? Kind of inexplicable, isn''t it?
though i dont like the fact that this war has gon on long enough and that our soldiers die everyday for a war that may not end until we leave.. i also understand why it takes so long..
Wouldn''t you agree then, that whatever we do, however many young Americans we kill, however many Iraqis are killed, however much money we spend that we are merely just spinning our wheels by doing what we have been doing the last 4 years? It seems that after 4 years of doing the same thing that we should be able to try a new plan, something that is not so failure-prone.
and i must ask Krenz4... have u been in the military?? have u been trained to be a soldier..
we didnt make our whole military outfit in 9 weeks... it takes years and i think that the fact there are still people in after 20 years and still find ways to help all the new recruits .. proves.. training troops is a never ending cycle. and until the iraqi''s have a decent military outfit.. our boys probably wont come home unless the next president has the balls to pull them out.
Why should anyone care about the opinion of a war criminal like General Odierno, as he is interviewed by Corporate tool, Katie Couric?
Again, while reports about the ficticious "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" group were nearly nonexistent just a couple of days ago, we note a substantial increase in unsupported claims about this nonexistent group, as the various war criminals, cowards, and liars seek to justify the continuance of the brutal, disgraceful, and illegal invasion of Iraq.
I don''t doubt that you are right that we will have to wait for a new president and I certainly wish you and your husband safety until then.
However, it will be necessary, after we pull our troops out of Iraq that we put many of them back into Afghanistan because it is imperative that we quell al Qaeda there, in other words, finish what we started and cut and run on. FeelFree1 is right, al Qaeda in Iraq is political propaganda designed to garner support for the "surge". And, it seems we are working inordinately hard to convince everyone that Iran is another boogey man, while we continue to remain silent as to Saudi Arabia''s role.
pastdue1,
Re: "al Qaeda in Iraq is political propaganda designed to garner support for the "surge"."
Thank you for the support.
Couric''s reports are in fact psychological warfare American style, designed to win domestic support for the "surge" and for the war in general.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"Even US soldiers assigned to protect General Petraeus''s showcase remain sceptical. "Personally, I think it''s a false representation," Staff Sergeant Campbell said, referring to the portrayal of the Dora market as an emblem of the surge''s success. "But what can I say? I''m just doing my job and don''t ask questions."
I know......................HOW ABOUT A FLIP FLOP!!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
EXPERTS DOUBT DROP IN VIOLENCE IN IRAQ.
ACCORDING TO ONE SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICAL IN WASHINGTON, " IF A BULLIT WENT THROUGH THE BACK OF THE HEAD, ITS SECTARION," IF IT WENT THROUGH THE FRONT, ITS CRIMINAL".
HMMMMMMMM
STAY THE COURSE...........
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been murdered under our occupation of Iraq...Millions have voted with their feet...and Odierno takes another in-bed reporter to Haditha Street...
Troops Home Now! The War was based on a lie!
Here''s a picture of the cut columns at ground level on the WTC after the 9-11 attack.
http://media.portland.indymedia.org/images/2006/06/341239.jpg
The same liars who said Saddam had WMDs, forged evidence to present to Congress, made-up the Niger Yellowcake hoax told you that 19 Arabs with box cutters who couldn''t fly jetliners took over four of them escaped NORAD and rammed three of buildings of key importance in America. This is the official lie! The Washington Regime is not fit to rule. Troops Home Now! Restore the Constitution!
You can shut your bloody gob now.
You and your kind are losing your war against America, and you know it.
It''s only going to get worse for you and your kind, as you become the social outcasts of society.
'' ... after the civil war, 80+% of the u.s. were self employed farmers, a hundred years later, i work for a company that publicly and regularly demonstrates that it refuses to be self sufficient ... ''
'' ... it isn''t that little militant girls can''t make a living by marrying and slaving civilian men, it is just that militant men have a thing for disciplining and choring little militant girls ... ''
'' ... there''s nothing wrong with not liking beets or hairy women or naked girls, but denying those who like beets and hairy women and naked girls access to congress could almost me construed as oppressive if life were supposed to be fair ... ''
'' ... it isn''t that little girls can''t provide for my needs or that they don''t want to, they are very crafty and kind, but the general promised he would, so i keep waiting ... of course the general also said it only takes a few to feed the world and the army''s too busy taxing the world to be that few what feed it ... ''
'' ... i was number 3.5 billion, but no one listened when i said the ignorant naked kids are freed from thousands of years of being made to disappear, now i''m number one and my survival depends upon my military skill and not only does no one listen, but they''re all trying to kill me ... ''
Does anyone at CBS edit what is printed?
"But the key piece that we are seeing is the fact that that populace is rejecting those troops, and that''s the first step."
The Iraqi troops, the American troops???????
The whole story about the "progress" in Iraq is just more of the same lies and half-truths from the Chimp who just joined the so-called "cut-and-run defeatocrats" by saying that if things keep going "so well", he might cut the troops. Well, guess what? He isn''t going to cut the troops! They can keep on dying, for all he cares! In the authorized Bush biography that just came out, Bush admitted he was just stringing you all along until Oct. or Nov., in hopes that he can convince the next repug nominee to support "staying the course", a.k.a. NEVER ENDING WAR.
D@mn the gullibility, the ignorance, and the willful blindness of all of the Chimp''s legions of fools.
http://media.portland.indymed
ia.org/images/2006/06/341239.jpg
A "social outcast" for telling the truth? Is that the only threat you and the War Pigs have for us?
'' ... slaves were considered relatively high dollar assets that typically were little more likely to be thrown through a window to their deaths than a thousand or three thousand dollar computer ... wives and children, however, were slaves that functioned as liabilities and were far more likely to be put a day or few out of work than were field slaves ... ''
'' ... whuts extremely bizarre about slavery is that it only took something like three percent of three percent of folk to slave entire populations ... the first thing that should have popped into their minds was: ''ohmagosh, if we can slave populations with three percent of three percent, then our enemys can slave lil ol us with less than three percent of three percent of three percent of three percent ... ''
'' ... let''s invest 99% to those max wage folk what cuff cage collar and 1% to those min wage folk whut mug rape kill and 1% of 1% to those whut each give market share and other stuff to fifty folk what also each give market share and other stuff away to fifty folk each day for free ... ''
'' ... don''t dance porno get sick tax world get well feed world songs rallied round sick beds drifting farm trails and rallied round well beds racing farm trails ... ''
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