Transcript
MS. TORIE CLARKE: It was actually an extraordinary evolution of a concept that already existed. If you've followed the Pentagon for some time, you know we've tried and Secretary Rumsfeld has tried since the very beginning to be very transparent in our business, to provide as much access as possible. If you put two or three of his predecessors together or my predecessors together, you would not have seen them do as many briefings, as many interviews, as many public events. They take communications very seriously.
In previous conflicts, including Afghanistan, we made the best effort possible to provide access to the media. Iraq was different for a lot of reasons, and so there was an extraordinary evolution of what we were already doing, and it had to do with the factors. It had to do with the fact that we knew if we went to war, we'd have a lot more people out there, a lot more soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. It had to do with the fact that we knew the more people saw the U.S. military, the more they would understand the mission and how they were going about their jobs, and the more the people saw of the Iraqi regime.
I've used this story several times, but I knew with great certainty if we went to war, the Iraqi regime would be doing some terrible things and would be incredibly masterful with the lies and the deception. And I could stand up there at that podium and Secretary Rumsfeld could stand up there and say very truthfully the Iraqi regime is putting its soldiers in civilian clothing so they can ambush our soldiers. Some people would believe us and some people wouldn't. But we had hundreds and hundreds of credible, independent journalists saying the Iraqi regime is putting their soldiers in civilian clothing.
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