Middle East Institute Annual Conference
October 30, 2007, Washington DC
Clip 3, 1:56
"This is America turning on the government it created."


Let me just say General Haq is right -- arming groups is extraordinarily dangerous. But that's what the American administration has done with this government. Even the senior officials on the ground don't call the Iraqi government their ally. The arming of the Sunni tribes is a two-fold purpose. The most immediate is to put pressure on al Qaeda. That won't wipe them out, you never will, but it returns them to their natural order: a constant cancer that one must live with.

But the second, the most significant element, the broader element of the embracing of these Sunni tribes is this is America turning on the government it created. Don't forget, American agencies recommended the complete disbandment of the Iraqi national police. Why? Because the Americans have no control over it, and they are death squads in uniforms.

The reason why civilian deaths in Baghdad are down are threefold: one, anyone that can leave has left; anyone left behind is now in segregated enclaves; and for a long time the Sunnis were vulnerable. They were naked. US-backed government death squads would come in and slaughter them -- drill bits, all sorts of business -- and dump their bodies. Now these neighborhoods have their own militias to protect them. And as American soldiers, as General Petraeus, as Ambassador Crocker will tell you, they were the men two weeks ago we were fighting against. But we give them support -- we give them air support -- and now their neighborhoods are safe.

So it makes the numbers look good for now, and maybe it's the only way you'll get your boys and girls home, but it is gonna have long-term consequences.