Transcript
SENATOR JACK REED: As the Ambassador said, I just returned on October 9th from my ninth visit to Iraq and my fourth visit to Afghanistan. I want to focus my comments on the situation in Iraq, and if you want to speak about Afghanistan and other issues, I am looking forward to the question and answer period.
What I found in Iraq is increasing violence. You are seeing that in the newspapers and on the television screens. I found an increasing frustration among the population which is reflected in polls, and it is a function of lack of real progress in electricity production in Baghdad, in economic revitalization. There are some areas where there is some progress, but the perception overall is after two and a half plus years of our presence and the emerging Iraqi Government, the progress is not adequate for the people of Iraq.
There are, in my view, four struggles that are going on, some of them overlapping, intersecting. The first is principally in Al-Anbar Province where you have a Sunni community where Al-Qaeda in Iraq is operating. They are conducting operations against our Marines and Army forces there. While we were there, we visited Al-Anbar Province outside of Fallujah, there was some hope that the tribal leaders, the Sunni community, was beginning to take steps to reject Al-Qaeda, the foreign fighters, from their midst. Those steps had taken hold before, but they had essentially petered out because of reprisals and attacks by Al-Qaeda against the Sunni tribal leaders. Also, there was a perception in that area that there is a certain degree of indifference from the Government of Baghdad or worse because it is a Sunni community and the government is dominated by Shiia.
Our Marines and Army forces are conducting operations there. I asked the commanding general whether they were economy of force operations, and he recognized that troops had been moved out of Al-Anbar to go into Baghdad, but he also pointed out what other military leaders have said, that if the Battle of Baghdad fails, then what happens in Al-Anbar is probably not going to be determinative. So you have a situation in Al-Anbar Province where it is a struggle, Sunni struggle with insurgent activity and foreign fighters.
Then you move outside of that area into Baghdad principally and other parts of the country where it is a sectarian struggle between Sunni and Shiia. Baghdad is, at this moment, sort of engulfed in such a struggle.
Then there are other parts of the country, the South principally, where it is a struggle of Shiia against Shiia. Just last week, there were reports in certain communities where Shiia militias showed up and were fighting apparently other Shiia militias. So this struggle goes on. Also, there is tension in the North between the Kurds and Arabs in the North, and that tension goes on.
Suffice it to say, this is a very complicated situation. It is not all about international terrorists. In fact, in many respects, it is very little about international terrorists. It is about internal political dynamics within Iraq and a very difficult set of dynamics.
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