Senator James Inhofe had an interview with Hugh Hewitt last Tuesday Thanks to Radioblogger for the following transcript.
Run up: Abdel Jassim is the NEW Iraqi Minister of Defense and Senator Inhofe had told Hugh the Minister stated, "I hate CNN!"
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HH: I'm talking with Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, just returned again from his 11th visit to Iraq, just today, I imagine. Senator, I just want to pause on the defense minister of Iraq's reaction to CNN. I hate CNN. Did he tell you why he hates CNN?
JI: Oh, he said all they do is talk about negative things, things that are bad, and we have nothing but successes over here. And then he start enumerating the successes, which I can verify, because I'm there all the time. The number, out of 112 battalions, they have 62 of them. That's over half of them that are either level 2 or level 1. That means they can conduct their own combat. He made the statement, and this is one of the things that he says that CNN and some of the media keeps saying, they keep saying that America is leading them, and we're in the rear. And he said that's not true at all. We are leading, and America is offering support. In fact, of the last 500 special operations that took place, 75% of them were led by the Iraqis, not by the Americans. Only 25% were. Now if you go back, as I've done on almost a monthly basis, you can see how this changes. And a year ago, hardly any of them were led by the Iraqis. These guys...I was up in Fallujah during the last election, and they were so proud. They were going down there to vote, and they were targeted, because they were supposed to shoot any of the Iraqi security forces that voted. And they went down, they voted, and they came back, and they were real proud of it. And then, when I asked them the question, are you going to be able to take over the security of Iraq...it's kind of funny, because of the language problem, they said nein, nein. I thought that meant no, no, but that really means yes, yes.
HH: Oh, okay.
JI: So those guys are excited, and they're proud, and you talk to any of the...I challenge any of your listeners to talk to any of our reservists, or the Guard that comes back, and they'll tell you that these guys are learning fast, they're good soldiers, they're disciplined, and they're looking...well, in fact, Dr. Rubai, the guy that you need to watch, too, the national security advisor, he said that by the end of the year, he's going to recommend that the coalition forces cut down to 100,000. That's going to be a military decision, but this is an Iraqi saying that.
HH: Let me ask you about the allegations about death squads, especially from the minister of interior, going out and cutting down Sunnis, and then the reprisal killings. How big a problem, the sectarian violence?
JI: Yeah, I don't think it's happening. It's funny, you hear about these little conspiracies, and these things that are going on, and when you're over there, you don't see it. Now I'll have to say this, the one minister I didn't talk to was al-Balani, and he's the minister of interior. So I don't have a first hand handle on that.
HH: What about the reports you've received on the Haditha incident?
JI: Well, this is kind of interesting. As the more we look into it, and I'm not really the one looking into it, the more that comes out, are misrepresentations of things that may have happened a year ago, or happened six months ago, and they kind of put them all together in this one area, Haditha. Now another interesting thing that was said by Abdel Jassim, he said Haditha is a bigger story back in the United States than it is here. I asked him about it, and he said oh, it's not a big story here. And that's one thing that I think we need to know over here. We keep conjuring these things up as if they're big stories, but they're not over there. You want to know another one that isn't, Mr. Hewitt?
HH: Yes.
JI: All this thing about reconciliation that the Democrats talk about, oh, they're going to have to reconciliate between the Sunnis and the Shiias, and all that, well, the defense minister said that that is another American issue, that the reconciliation has already taking place, and we are Iraqis first. Now I didn't believe that, and so I stopped at...some...it's kind of a monument they have to the unknown soldier, and there were 9 honor guard people, very sharp soldiers standing there, and through an interpreter, I asked the guy that was leading that group, I asked him the question about the Shiias and the Sunnis. He said no, that's not...I'm a Sunni, my wife is a Shiia, and I can't tell you...I've spent the last nine days with these eight guys. I don't know which one is a Shiia, and which one's a Sunni. We're all Iraqis. And again, he claims that's an American issue, and I believe it is.
prying1 sez: "Everything you know is wrong Earthling! We must reprogram you!"
- It appears from what Senator Inhofe says that while all is not 100% well in Iraq things have moved along better than we know.
- I'm waiting for the day when the U.S. starts pulling out troops and the 'progressive' liberal socialists start shouting, "At last Bush is taking our advice! He is forced to listen to us! We were right!"
Sorry foil hat crowd. He is still following the plan you refused to believe in (much less admit existed) and it is working!!!
And why is it when the label 'liberal' gets bad connotations that these rectal apertures start calling themselves 'progressives'? Do they think they are fooling anybody?
Thanks again to Radioblogger - The MP3 of this interview is available on his site. His is a site you should visit daily. -
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