Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Slow Pace of Iraq's Political Transition

Aired November 12, 2003 - 08:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on Paul Bremer's meeting with President Bush and his national security team back at the White House again today, the second day in a row for the civil administrator in charge of helping to rebuild Iraq and also about that slow pace of Iraq's political transition.
Our CNN analyst, Ken Pollack, back with us in D.C. to talk about these problems -- Ken, good morning.

Nice to have you here.

How do you improve what's happening in Iraq the fastest right now?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Well, look, obviously, Bill, this is a situation that's very complicated and there are some real differences of opinion out there. My own personal view, I think that the U.S. has got to do everything that it can to bring more security personnel to Iraq. I think that it's true that we need to have more Iraqis there, but the fact of the matter is you can only bring so many Iraqi security personnel online at a time.

You know, a lot of the people who are out there right now are not very well trained and as a result the U.S. military doesn't have a lot of faith in them. So if you can't really trust in the Iraqis yet and you have an immediate shortfall, the question is can you bring more U.S. troops in? And that's going to be hard, because, truth to tell, we don't have a whole lot of troops left out there who aren't already in Iraq. Or do you go to the international community and say you know what, we really need your help?

HEMMER: Yes, aside from the troop question, there are complaints out there that the Iraqi Governing Council is not acting fast enough.

How do you speed up the process?

POLLACK: Well, there's a first order question, Bill, which is do you want that, to speed up the process? There are real questions about the legitimacy of the Iraqi Governing Council. You know, the polls continue to show that most Iraqis don't believe that the Governing Council is terribly legitimate. That's one of the reasons why a lot of the people out in Baghdad, Paul Bremer's people out in Baghdad, are very wary of doing that.

They'd like to take a very different course and set up a new, legitimate Iraqi government using democratic methods that would ultimately supercede the Iraqi Governing Council. And the debate in Washington right now is between Bremer and his team and folks in Washington who would like to see a quick devolution of power to the Iraqi Governing Council.

HEMMER: And we're going to get to a member of that Council in a moment here live in Baghdad.

Before we do, one final question here. There is talk now about modeling Iraq after the Afghanistan model, the loya jurga, setting up different tribal areas and giving them control and authority over different parts of the country of Iraq.

Do you think that's a good idea at this point?

POLLACK: Boy, Bill, as a long time Iraq expert, I think that's about the worst thing that the U.S. could possibly do. It seems to be working to some extent in Afghanistan because you do have strong tribal leaders in Afghanistan who probably can maintain security in their parts of the country.

In Iraq, you just don't have that. There are parts of Iraq where there are strong tribal leaders, but for most of this country, that is gone. Saddam Hussein destroyed all of that midlevel of leadership. And if you start devolving power onto local leaders, chances are you're going to form up lots of tiny little groups who really don't have the power to control the territory that they've been assigned.

HEMMER: Ken, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 12, 2003 - 08:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on Paul Bremer's meeting with President Bush and his national security team back at the White House again today, the second day in a row for the civil administrator in charge of helping to rebuild Iraq and also about that slow pace of Iraq's political transition.
Our CNN analyst, Ken Pollack, back with us in D.C. to talk about these problems -- Ken, good morning.

Nice to have you here.

How do you improve what's happening in Iraq the fastest right now?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Well, look, obviously, Bill, this is a situation that's very complicated and there are some real differences of opinion out there. My own personal view, I think that the U.S. has got to do everything that it can to bring more security personnel to Iraq. I think that it's true that we need to have more Iraqis there, but the fact of the matter is you can only bring so many Iraqi security personnel online at a time.

You know, a lot of the people who are out there right now are not very well trained and as a result the U.S. military doesn't have a lot of faith in them. So if you can't really trust in the Iraqis yet and you have an immediate shortfall, the question is can you bring more U.S. troops in? And that's going to be hard, because, truth to tell, we don't have a whole lot of troops left out there who aren't already in Iraq. Or do you go to the international community and say you know what, we really need your help?

HEMMER: Yes, aside from the troop question, there are complaints out there that the Iraqi Governing Council is not acting fast enough.

How do you speed up the process?

POLLACK: Well, there's a first order question, Bill, which is do you want that, to speed up the process? There are real questions about the legitimacy of the Iraqi Governing Council. You know, the polls continue to show that most Iraqis don't believe that the Governing Council is terribly legitimate. That's one of the reasons why a lot of the people out in Baghdad, Paul Bremer's people out in Baghdad, are very wary of doing that.

They'd like to take a very different course and set up a new, legitimate Iraqi government using democratic methods that would ultimately supercede the Iraqi Governing Council. And the debate in Washington right now is between Bremer and his team and folks in Washington who would like to see a quick devolution of power to the Iraqi Governing Council.

HEMMER: And we're going to get to a member of that Council in a moment here live in Baghdad.

Before we do, one final question here. There is talk now about modeling Iraq after the Afghanistan model, the loya jurga, setting up different tribal areas and giving them control and authority over different parts of the country of Iraq.

Do you think that's a good idea at this point?

POLLACK: Boy, Bill, as a long time Iraq expert, I think that's about the worst thing that the U.S. could possibly do. It seems to be working to some extent in Afghanistan because you do have strong tribal leaders in Afghanistan who probably can maintain security in their parts of the country.

In Iraq, you just don't have that. There are parts of Iraq where there are strong tribal leaders, but for most of this country, that is gone. Saddam Hussein destroyed all of that midlevel of leadership. And if you start devolving power onto local leaders, chances are you're going to form up lots of tiny little groups who really don't have the power to control the territory that they've been assigned.

HEMMER: Ken, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com