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Length: 4:18
LOU DOBBS: Insurgents
have killed three more of our troops in Iraq, all
three Marines serving in al Anbar province. Eighty of
our troops have been killed in Iraq so far this
month; 3,337 of our troops killed since the beginning
of the war; 24,764 troops wounded, 11,064 of our
troops seriously.
Joining me now for more on this war in Baghdad -- in
Iraq, is our Baghdad correspondent, our senior
correspondent, a man extremely experienced, and who
has just done an outstanding job reporting from
there, Michael Ware.
Michael, good to see you here.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Lou.
DOBBS: Let's start with the fundamental issue. David
Petraeus said that there have been improvements in al
Anbar, and in Baghdad. But overall, the level of
violence remains the same. Give us your
interpretation.
WARE: Okay. General Petraeus is right. He's a
straight shooter, he's a straight talker. And he
represents a new school of thought that's being
applied by the military in Iraq.
The surge in Baghdad is changing certain types of
violence. However, what we're seeing overall is that
the deaths among Iraqi civilians each month and
deaths among U.S. service personnel each month
maintain the same as before the surge.
What's changed is that people are dying in different
places and in different ways. And the successes in al
Anbar province are solely attributed to the U.S.
cutting a deal with the Ba'athist insurgents and
unleashing them, giving them license to essentially
conduct an assassination campaign against al Qaeda.
DOBBS: And today we also had the news from a serving
senior officer, Colonel Yingling, saying straight
out, the general staff of the United States Army is
pitiful, and has been a moral failure, an
intellectual failure. I've been critical of the
general staff for some time in the Pentagon.
And he said something most compelling to me, an
articulation that is, to me, profound. He said our
generals are not worthy of our soldiers.
Give us a sense of the thinking, the morale, and the
attitude toward leadership on the part of our troops
toward their leadership.
WARE: Well, the boys in the field, the grunts, these
kids who are sweating it out and bleeding it out
every day will continue to follow orders. They're
professionals.
DOBBS: Sure.
WARE: And they're not fighting for a general. They're
not fighting for an administration. Day-to-day,
they're fighting for the man next to him, for their
brother. And they'll continue in that vein.
Now, in terms of the overall strategy, there's troops
that are becoming increasingly cynical and
disillusioned. They were on their last tour. Many of
them are coming back for a third tour. They can see
for themselves a deteriorating situation, and the
increasing sophistication of their enemy.
So what's being said in this article by Lieutenant
Colonel Yingling -- I spent time with his forces, I
was in the battle of Tal Afar with these men -- is
really a furtherance of a growing school of thought
within the military. And we're seeing that school of
thought in its ascendancy now with General Petraeus
commanding the war.
DOBBS: And the view toward the leadership, of the
general staff on the part of the troops?
WARE: Well, of course, the individual soldiers and
Marines are forbidden by Army regulations to directly
criticize their commanders, either in uniform or out
of uniform. Nonetheless, as I said, these guys and
girls know that it's not working.
DOBBS: Petraeus offering hope?
WARE: Yeah, definitely. Petraeus -- General Petraeus
is coming in with fresh eyes and a fresh approach.
This is General Petraeus' third tour of Iraq. He
knows the situation. There's been an evolving school
of thought in terms of tactics and the ways to
address the insurgency. He's applying those. People
are looking to him for that leadership.
DOBBS: That's a lot to put on one man, even a man who
is so well respected, regarded for his capacities, as
General David Petraeus. You're pretty good with your
capabilities as well. Thanks for being here, Michael
Ware.
WARE: Thank you, Lou.