MORE CLAPPING ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2003

GEN. ABIZAID¹: Well, we talked about the five I's that we're trying to concentrate on, the first one being internationalization -- these aren't in any particular priority, by the way. The second one being Iraqi-ization, the third one being focusing intelligence, the fourth one being fixing the infrastructure quickly, and the final one, telling our story from an information point of view. It's just so crucial.It's funny, as I -- I've been home for about a week and a half, and I look around and I sometimes say, I guess I need to go back to Iraq to find somebody to surrender to.(Light laughter.) And then I go and I talk to our troops in downtown Baghdad and anywhere, and they are so confident and so positive that it takes me about 30 minutes to understand we've got this under control. It won't be easy; it'll be tough. There'll be some treasure that has to be expended, and unfortunately, there'll be blood. But we can do this. We can win it, and we can win it with the Iraqis.

MR. WOLFOWITZ²: General Mattis told me earlier, during the major combat phase it was those fanatic Ba'athists and foreign terrorists who were our main opposition. They're our main opposition today. But they are losing. They're on the losing end of history here, because, unlike other wars in the past where people talk about resistance, this resistance does not enjoy the support of the Iraqi people.

...every time we get intelligence -- and we're getting more and more intelligence. As I believe the general said, every time we get intelligence, all it takes is a platoon to go out there and clean them up. And we're making real progress in that regard. Getting Uday and Qusay was not only in itself a huge step forward, but it is -- encouraged a lot of other Iraqis to come forward with more and better information. And we're on the winning side here.

So, we have the winning assets on our side, and the most important winning asset are the Iraqi people and the willingness of Iraqis to go out and guard posts where it's dangerous, and fight and die and keep that regime from coming back and to wipe it out.

There was an enormous amount of preparation, and there's a stunning list of successes that our military and their civilian counterparts have accomplished, and let's not -- you know, confidence is part of winning. We need to project confidence, and we have every reason to project confidence because we've done a fantastic job. We've liberated a country from a horrible dictator. We are cleaning up the remnants of that regime. We have the people with us. We'll get the electricity fixed.

¹Federal News Service
September 4, 2003 Thursday
LENGTH: 2528 words
HEADLINE: STAKEOUT FOLLOWING THEIR BRIEFING OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SPEAKERS: SENATOR JOHN W. WARNER (R-VA); DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PAUL D. WOLFOWITZ; LIEUTENANT GENERAL JOHN P. ABIZAID, USA, COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND
RE: IRAQ
LOCATION: THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON D.C.

²Federal News Service
September 9, 2003 Tuesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING
LENGTH: 38236 words
HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: U.S. MILITARY COMMITMENTS AND ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS ABROAD
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR JOHN WARNER (R-VA)
LOCATION: 106 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
WITNESSES: MARC GROSSMAN, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS; GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, U.S. AIR FORCE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF; PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE; DOV ZAKHEIM, COMPTROLLER AND UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE