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Obama in a Swimsuit; President Bush's Iraq Plan
Aired January 10, 2007 - 10:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Barack Obama doesn't really want your attention, at least while he's wearing a swimsuit. Fat chance?
Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sorry, but we refuse to obey the headline "Stop looking at it." "It" being Barack Obama in a swimsuit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little flabby, I'm sorry to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looks gorgeous.
MOOS: There he is in a two-page spread in "People" entitled "Beach Babes". The babes range from Jessica Alba in a bikini to actor Hugh Jackman with his six-pack abs.
The senator's inclusion led to this "Washington Post" headline: "The Honorable Beach Babe from Illinois.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would vote for her, to be honest with you.
MOOS: That would be Penelope Cruz.
How did a possible presidential candidate get mixed in with the beach babes? In the words of Senator Obama himself: "It's, uh, paparazzi... Stop looking at it!"
"It's embarrassing," he told the "Washington Post".
The pictures were taken while the senator was vacationing in Hawaii. Watery shots can come back to drown a politician.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Kerry, which ever way the wind blows.
MOOS: The first President Bush wasn't afraid to take off his shirt and dive in.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's wonderful!
MOOS: But George W. Bush was smart enough to know what not to wear at a summit in Cancun.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No Speedo suit here. Thankfully.
MOOS: This image of Arnold Schwarzenegger ricocheted around the web, temporarily terminating his pumping iron image.
Even the woman running president of France got nabbed in her bikini. Segolene Royal weathered the exposure well.
But when LBJ revealed his surgical scar, it left a mental scar on many.
As for Obama...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has rolls. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rolls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looks pretty good to me.
MOOS: She left, then came back to add:
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't look so good that he's spending all his time working out. He's probably paying more attention to policy matters.
MOOS: Obama is known for working out at a Chicago club. A columnist who happened to run into him in the locker room memorably said, "Obama doesn't have enough fat on his body to make a butter pat."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to see Ted Kennedy in the same pose.
MOOS: And then there's the shot of the Clintons dancing on the beach that ended up on the front page. Boy, did they look white as ghosts.
Funny how a guy who looks a little like he's swimming in his business suits looks not so skinny when he's actually swimming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Buy big, look small. Buy big, look small. That's what I say.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins.
Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM on this Wednesday, January 10th.
Here's what's on the rundown.
More troops, more cash -- the president's plan for Iraq. He outlines his new strategy tonight.
This hour, a pair of beltway veterans offer their viewpoints.
HARRIS: Working for a living. House Democrats pushing a pay raise for minimum wage workers today.
COLLINS: Barbaro's setback. A Kentucky Derby champ in severe pain almost eight months after shattering a leg.
A developing story in the NEWSROOM.
The war in Iraq, the president's battle for a new direction. President Bush unveils his plan tonight in a primetime address. The two-pronged attack, according to sources, more boots on the ground and more bucks in the pipeline.
CNN White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano now with a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Bush plans to send roughly 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, according to sources familiar with his deliberations. Their role, to quell sectarian violence and give Iraq's fragile government, as well as Iraqi forces, a chance to assert control of Baghdad. The same sources say the U.S. troop increase would come in phases, putting much of the responsibility on the shoulders of Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki to meet political and security goals along the way.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The Iraqis understand that they have -- that it is important for them to step up and succeed. What you're aiming at is an Iraqi government that's fully capable of handling all the responsibilities from the law of law, to security, to economic rules, and so on.
QUIJANO: Those goals include movement towards national reconciliation, reversing the policy of isolating Saddam loyalists, and a formula to share oil revenue. Sources familiar with the president's plan tell CNN that Prime Minister Maliki gave Mr. Bush his personal assurance to send more Iraqi troops to Baghdad, pledging they will have new rules of engagement allowing them to take on the powerful radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's support helped bring Maliki to office, but his militia is blamed for some of the worst sectarian violence.
The president's plan is also said to include an economic package featuring a jobs program to tackle Iraq's unemployment, as well as sending more State Department officials to Iraq to coordinate reconstruction projects with Iraqi companies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Elaine, this morning the White House seems to be indicating the president's plan is in support of an Iraqi initiative. What can you tell us about that?
QUIJANO: Yes, well, that's right.
Over the weekend, Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, outlined what he said was a new security plan for Baghdad. Now, he didn't offer much in the way of specifics, but White House officials are pointing to one thing, a comment that the prime minister made, saying that essentially the Iraqis are committed to going after outlaws, as the prime minister called them, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation.
So, the White House trying to frame this speech by the president tonight really as sort of an outgrowth, almost, of the Baghdad security plan envisioned by Prime Minister Maliki. Here is White House counselor Dan Bartlett earlier this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN BARTLETT, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT BUSH: The sectarian violence we're seeing in Iraq can only be solved by Iraqis. And the plan put forward tonight is an Iraqi initiative.
What it requires, though, is our support. What we've seen time and time again, Miles, in these security operations we've attempted in Baghdad had two real fundamental flaws. One, there were not enough Iraqi troops and U.S. troops to help hold the neighborhoods we had cleared throughout Baghdad.
Secondly, and just as importantly, the rules of engagement. Where those troops could go, who they could go after, were severely restricted by politics in Baghdad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, a U.S. official tells CNN that while most of the additional troops will, in fact, be focused on Baghdad, about 4,000 of them will be focused on the restive province of Al Anbar in the western part of Iraq. The Bush administration's hope, Heidi, as you know, is that this time the Iraqis will, in fact, stand up so that Iraq can come under full control of the Iraqis by November -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Elaine Quijano live for us outside the White House today.
Elaine, thanks.
HARRIS: The president's plan expected to include more troops in Iraq already under fire on Capitol Hill. Some Democrats are calling it an escalation, but how far will they go in opposing the plan?
Here's Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): If the president wants to send more troops to Iraq and spend billions more dollars to support them, Democrat Ted Kennedy says Congress must first vote on it. SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Let the American people hear, yes or no, where their elected representatives stand on one of the greatest challenges of our time. Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam.
BASH: The liberal Senate veteran is not just challenging the president, but also fellow Democrats scrambling behind the scenes to figure out how far they can and should go with their new majority power to oppose the war.
KENNEDY: We cannot simply speak out against an escalation of troops in Iraq. We must act to prevent it.
BASH: But instead of Kennedy's hard-hitting approach, the majority leader announced the Senate would vote on a symbolic resolution opposing more troops in Iraq.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: If there is a bipartisan resolution saying we don't support this escalation of the war, then the president's going to have to take vote of that. I think that's the beginning or the end, as far as I'm concerned.
BASH: Republican leaders are urging caution.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: I think it is inappropriate for the Congress to try to micromanage, in effect, the tactics in a military conflict.
BASH: But the president can no longer rely on a GOP firewall of support. Republican senator Gordon Smith, who recently soured on the war, tells CNN he thinks Kennedy's idea for a new congressional authorization is a good one.
SEN. GORDON SMITH (R), OREGON: The more the Congress can be involved in the decision-making, the better. And that's what the American people are asking for. They're going to hold us accountable, then let's have the tools of accountability so we can be held responsible.
BASH (on camera): For now, Democrats say their main focus will be to scrutinize the president's Iraq plan in committee hearings. There is still intense debate about whether Democrats should try to block funding for additional troops to Iraq, but Senator Ted Kennedy is trying to convince colleagues by the time they get that $100 billion request, it will be too late, the troops will already be in the field, and Democrats will be in the untenable position of withholding funds for troops in combat.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And as you just heard a few moments ago from our correspondent at the White House, White House counselor Dan Bartlett says that President Bush's plan for Iraq is an Iraqi initiative.
We want to go to our Michael Holmes. He's joining us now live from Iraq's capital.
Michael, does Dan Bartlett's statement match what you are hearing there in Baghdad?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think there's a deal of skepticism, Heidi, about whether it is, indeed, an Iraqi initiative, and an Iraqi initiative alone. Very few people are going to be anything other than cynical about the U.S. sending more troops into the theater here without having made that decision themselves.
If Nuri al-Maliki asks for 20,000 troops, the U.S. isn't simply going to provide them. They're going to keep a close eye on where they're troops are doing and what they're doing -- and what they're getting involved with.
So I think that certainly the people we're talking to are saying that it may be portrayed entirely as an Iraqi initiative, but it's a lot more than that. The U.S. is not going to be doing this at the request of the Iraqi prime minister.
They're very much involved in the planning of this themselves. They have their own aims to achieve here so they can leave -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Michael, quickly, if you could, clear this up for me. When we're talk about the Iraqi initiative, are we talking about Iraqis agreeing to go after the militias, or are we talking more about them offering up more troops as Iraqi security forces?
HOLMES: Well, they'll be offering up more troops. But the question is going to be, what are those troops going to be able to do?
One of the problems that's been throughout this last year or more is the fact that many Iraqi troops are simply not up to it without an American standing on their shoulder and telling them what to do. Some of the troops are, but a lot of them are not.
And then there's the political question, which was also raised in that sound bite you played earlier and was mentioned earlier as well. Let's remember that Muqtada al-Sadr, which is one of the most problematic militias that are going to have to be dealt with in this, he's got in his party members of parliament, 30 of them. He controls six ministries and he, in effect, is part of the governing coalition.
Is Nuri al-Maliki going to go in there and take out his militia? It could affect the stability of the government as a whole. So there's a lot of political toing and froing going on here in Baghdad at the moment to try to get another sort of coalition together that excludes Muqtada al-Sadr. Because at the moment, as it stands politically, the notion of the Iraqis going into Sadr City and taking out his militia is, quite frankly, absurd.
There's going to have to be changes on the political front here before that can even happen -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Right. And I know that there are reports of more U.S. casualties in Iraq. Michael, what can you tell us about that? HOLMES: Yes, there's been three today. Two U.S. soldiers died in Al Anbar province. Of course, that is very much a home of the Sunni insurgency and the al Qaeda insurgency. They died of wounds today after fighting there. And also another soldier in Diyala province, just northeast of here also died in fighting.
COLLINS: Michael Holmes coming to us live from Baghdad.
Michael, thank you.
HARRIS: Just another reminder. CNN is the place for unmatched coverage of the president's plans for Iraq. Join us at 7:00 Eastern with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM."
Then at 9:00, the president's speech. Then the reaction. A special edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" follows at 9:30 Eastern. Then Anderson Cooper takes the reigns.
CNN, the most trusted name in news.
And we've heard from the critics. We'll hear from the president. Now we want to hear from you.
What do you want to hear from the president tonight? E-mail us your thoughts. You've been great doing this for us morning -- cnnnewsroom@cnn.com.
We will share some of your thoughts later this hour.
COLLINS: Want to go over to Fredricka Whitfield.
Fred, you have some news about a bus accident in Pennsylvania?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Right.
Let's go to Burke County (ph), Pennsylvania, where you're about to see pictures of a scene between -- a collision between a tractor- trailer and a school bus right there. Apparently, the school bus, loaded with about 15 students on board, was traveling west on Route 422 when somehow this collision took place between it and the tractor- trailer.
Seven students were take on the hospital. The driver, as well, has been taken to the hospital for injuries.
This all taking place about five miles west of Reading. We don't know the cause of the accident or how the driver of the tractor- trailer might be doing as well, but pretty alarming video you're seeing right there of the wreckage as a result of this collision.
We don't know who exactly was at fault. But that's the scene there in Burke County (ph), Pennsylvania, just west of Reading, Pennsylvania -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Fredricka Whitfield, we know you'll watch that one for us. Thanks, Fred. We'll get back to you if we get more information on it.
Boy, nasty pictures there.
HARRIS: And still ahead in the NEWSROOM, selling his new strategy, can President Bush convince the public it is the right thing to do? Washington insiders Frank Sesno -- Frank is actually here in Atlanta -- Susan Page is in Washington. They both join us coming up next in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: And tracking terror. The U.S. now hunting suspected al Qaeda operatives in Somalia. Will it become the next ground war?
That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: And minimum wage, bottom-line worry. One business feeling the brunt of wage hikes. That story straight ahead.
COLLINS: The speech is legendary, the story behind it fascinating. Find out how Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech almost did not happen.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Selling his new Iraq strategy to Americans already weary of war, President Bush takes to the air waves in a primetime address tonight.
Joining us to talk about what we can expect and what's at stake, CNN Special Correspondent and former Washington bureau chief, Frank Sesno.
Frank, great to see you, right here with us here in Atlanta.
And Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for "USA Today."
Susan, great to see you as well.
SUSAN PAGE, "USA TODAY" WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Nice to see you, Tony.
HARRIS: I have to ask you off the top, is the White House now trying to sell this -- this plan as an Iraqi plan? And before you respond, let me hear you -- let me let you hear White House counsel Dan Bartlett talking about the president's address and the plan now being an Iraqi plan.
This is Dan Bartlett talking on "AMERICAN MORNING" a few hours ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARTLETT: The sectarian violence we're seeing in Iraq can only be solved by Iraqis. And the plan put forward tonight is an Iraqi initiative. What it requires, though, is our support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Susan Page, let me start with you. What's going on here?
PAGE: You know, I've been listening to the White House explain this for a week now as they've really built up trying to sell this address. And I've never heard this before.
I think that the White House will have some credibility problems in selling this as an Iraqi plan since just on November 30th, not so long ago, when the president met with the prime minister of Iraq in Jordan, the prime minister of Iraq said he wanted fewer American troops, not more. A smaller American footprint, not a bigger one.
So, I can understand politically why he'd want to be making the case, this is an Iraqi plan, we're just providing support. But I think that's going to be a hard sell.
HARRIS: When did this stop, Frank, being the president's plan forward? When did this become Iraq's plan forward that we're standing in support of?
FRANK SESNO, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: This morning, apparently.
HARRIS: Yes.
SESNO: And I think that Susan touched on something a moment ago in her response that's the core to what is going to happen with the president this evening, and that is credibility. That is the word that has to be the measure of this.
Is it credible that this is Iraq's plan all of a sudden? Is it credible that 20,000 additional troops are going to turn the tide on the ground? Is it credible that Maliki is now going to be able to assert both control over security and control over the political process that he hasn't been able to support up until now?
That's the challenge for the president of the United States, is to make a case, a credible case to the country that, after more than three and a half years of this, this actually represents a change. And he's got a lot of skeptics, Tony, in the public, certainly the Democrats, and his own party.
HARRIS: Susan, if the president is now -- if the White House is now framing this in language that this is an Iraqi plan, does it make you wonder if the president is going to sit in front of a camera tonight, and will he be giving an address that he actually believes himself?
PAGE: Well, I do think President Bush very much believes in continuing the mission in Iraq, because otherwise there is no explanation for why he's gone forward with it in the face of the midterm elections that we're seeing in large part as a referendum against continuing the war in Iraq, undesired by Americans, to begin extricating U.S. troops. So, I think the president is very sincere in this, but he has a terrific headwind that he's facing.
In the "USA Today"-Gallup poll just this week, 61 percent of Americans said they opposed an increase of U.S. troops, and those are numbers that members of Congress in both parties pay attention to.
Frank, I was trying to think of the last time -- we've both been around for so long...
SESNO: Oh, please.
PAGE: ... the last time the president gave an address proposing a policy to which there was so much public opposition. And I can't think of one. Can you?
SESNO: No. It's -- and the headwind is incredible. And, you know, you cite those numbers. Here are some other numbers.
Nearly three-quarters of the country doesn't think the president has had a plan up until now. Again, where the credibility issue comes in. And two-thirds, in one form or another, want to start pulling troops out now or very soon.
So, to step in front of the country like this is, I think, as you say, Susan, very perilous. There is an opportunity for him, though, because I do think that the country still connects what's going on in Iraq to issues of terrorism.
If there is a failed state in Iraq, I think people get it that terrorists can operate from Iraq and that the entire region, which is, after all, oil, is dangerously destabilized. But boy, is this late in the game.
HARRIS: Susan, Senator McCain has called for this surge. He wants an even more significant surge.
The American Enterprise Institute, as you know, has called for this surge. Retired General Keane has called for this surge.
We need to really go on the record here. Who else has had the president's ear? Because if we move down this road and this doesn't work out, as everyone hopes it does -- you want this to work -- I mean, we need to know who else has had the president's ear on this idea of a surge.
PAGE: Well, the president, I think, is largely isolated with this position. I mean, he does have the support of people like Bill Kristol and other neoconservatives who supported the idea of the war. And in fairness, for quite some time have talked about the need for more U.S. troops.
Senator McCain also has been quite consistent from the early months of the war saying more troops were necessary. And presumably, there are members of the president's inner circle who thinks it's a good idea. But you go beyond that, and it's hard to find support. And, in fact, even if you look at the U.S. generals involved, we've had General Abizaid, the central commander. We've had General Casey, who's been the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Both of them in the past two months saying they didn't think an increase in forces was a solution to the escalating violence in Iraq.
So, you do see the president, I think, in a very singular position here.
SESNO: In fact, Susan, I have spoken to some people who have been involved in putting this whole plan together, and they said even in the last several days and weeks, Casey and Abizaid have still been opposed or sounding like they're opposed to bringing more forces in. That's one of the headwinds that the president's up against.
The other one is from those who think, if you're really going to put more troops in, you have to put a lot more troops in. I spoke just a short time ago to retired General John Batiste. He was one of the ones who came out early and was very critical of Rumsfeld.
HARRIS: Yes.
SESNO: Said, get Rumsfeld out of there. And he has said, if you're going to go in with a lot more forces and really change the situation on the ground, you could need 100,000 additional troops.
What happens, for example, he says, to the border with Iran and Syria? Twenty thousand troops does not secure the border with Iran and Syria. And even those who put the current plan together say that it will take at least the rest of the end of the fall just to secure Baghdad.
HARRIS: Yes.
SESNO: So this breathing space that the Iraqi government is supposed to have isn't very much space.
HARRIS: Let me -- let me play for both of you some exclusive video from yesterday. And about 20 seconds or so. And then I want you to respond to it as to the mission for these forces that will be surged into Iraq.
Take a look at this.
HARRIS: Twenty thousand additional troops going in for this mission. I mean, that -- that really is the mission, isn't it? It is kicking down doors, Susan, kicking down doors, climbing to rooftops, looking for the enemy, and then trying to be able to decipher who's who, who's good, who's bad.
PAGE: You know, I was just thinking about that description. And it reminds me of the conversations we had right before the invasion, where there was talk about what's the worst-case scenario if a U.S. invasion took place? And this is what was described then by experts in and outside the government as the worst-case scenario, that we would end up in a war, a street-to-street fight in Baghdad involved in secular violence, where it's not clear what the U.S. role is.
Are we on the Sunni side or the Shiite side if it's a civil war? If there's a Shiite-controlled government that is refusing our entreaties to reach out to the Sunnis, what's our role then?
I think that's one of the big difficulties that I know we all hope President Bush addresses tonight.
SESNO: Here's the way this has been explained to me, is that there are about 23, roughly two dozen mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad, Sunni-Shia, and that these additional troops will be part of a concerted effort to go in first to those mixed neighborhoods where they're mixing it up and pull them apart and start to establish some degree of security. Two phases of economic rebuilding or economic activity to follow. The first to restore essential services, and then the second to go in and start rebuilding more fundamental and more challenging infrastructure.
But that the U.S. forces that go in and presumably try to restore some order there are a 24/7 protection force. They don't go in, clear it, and then leave and let the Iraqis try by themselves to hold it. They're going to have to be part of that 24/7.
That's the difference here. But, you know, it's going to lead to a lot of questions from a lot of peopling saying, well, isn't that what you've been trying to do all along? What makes this different?
So, once again, a tough -- a tough -- a tough challenge.
HARRIS: The president primetime address, 7:00 -- our coverage begins here at CNN 7:00 p.m.
Can't wait to hear what the president has to say. I know you'll be watching.
Susan, Frank, thank you again, as always. Appreciate it.
PAGE: Thank you, Tony.
SESNO: Thank you.
COLLINS: Putting a price on paradise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won't be on the ocean, but I can still access the ocean. And have a half a million dollars in my pocket.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: But you've got to wonder, is half a million dollars in your pocket enough to give up a little corner of heaven?
That's coming up next in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Turning to some health news now.
People who attempt suicide usually have nightmares and other sleep disturbances. A study of 165 people who attempted to kill themselves found 89 percent said they had some kind of sleep disturbance. Two out of three -- that's 66 percent -- said they had nightmares. The findings are published in the journal "Sleep".
New research showing a link between migraines and a risk of depression. Researchers found women who had 15 headaches a month were almost four times more likely to show signs of depression.
This study of more than 1,000 women appears in the medical journal "Neurology".
To get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library, and information on diet and fitness. The address, cnn.com/health
The president's plan, the experts ponder. The views from different perspectives -- one a former diplomat, the other, a policy expert. Coming up in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Months in the making and already under fire, President Bush unveils his new Iraq plan in a prime time television address tonight. Democrats already planning to challenge the new strategy.
Sources say the plan calls for sending about 20,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq. A U.S. official says the first deployments would begin by the end of this month. We are told the goal is for Iraqi forces to take control of security throughout the country by November of this year. U.S. troops would remain to support the Iraqi forces.
Sources say the plan also calls for about $1 billion in new economic aid to Iraq. That's on top of the more than $30 billion already committed. CNN's special coverage of the president's speech begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern with comprehensive coverage before and after the address.
Let's take a closer look now at the plan with two men well travelled in such matters. James Dobbins is a former assistant secretary of state. He's now with the Rand Corporation. And Larry Diamond served as a senior adviser to coalition officials in Baghdad. He's now with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
And gentlemen, let's go ahead, if we could, and talk about Iraqi responsibility in all of this. I want to begin by listening to something that Senator Joe Biden said over the weekend and get your response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: You need a political settlement. All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot hold Iraq together if the Iraqis are not willing to make some of the compromises needed to hold their own country together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: James Dobbins, to you first. We have heard so much discussion about you cannot do this with the military alone. You've got to have a political plan as well. And you've got to have the Iraqis wanting to step to the plate. Are they ready to do so?
JAMES DOBBINS, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The answer would appear to be no, that they're not yet ready to do so. Some Iraqis are, obviously. Others aren't. But a coalescence, which diminishes the Sunni insurgency and tamps down the sectarian violence seems unlikely in the short run.
COLLINS: Larry Diamond, your thoughts on this.
LARRY DIAMOND, FMR. COALITION AUTHORITY ADVISER: Oh, I agree with Jim Dobbins, and I would go further and I would say they're not likely to reach the kinds of compromises that are urgently necessary on the control and distribution of oil revenue, on federal structure of the country, on other pending constitutional issues that were either imposed by some of the parties on others in the constitutional debate or left unresolved.
They're not likely to reach these compromises without heavy pressure from the Americans, and that pressure has to be conditioning these kinds of investments on the Iraqis first making the political compromises. And the president is not going to do that.
COLLINS: But the part that I have a hard time understanding is from our reporting that we've seen nearly every day here at CNN, from our correspondents who are embedded with troops on the ground and seeing some of these gun battles, as we saw yesterday, for Haifa Street in particular. How on earth can the political process begin without stopping the killing first? Larry?
DIAMOND: Well, the political process is going on. I mean, there is a certain degree of insulation of the legislators as they meet and as the government meets inside the protected area that's called the Green Zone.
And, Heidi, so to some extent these processes have to be parallel but I don't think you'll tamp down on the violence and change the climate of security in Iraq until there is some agreement across this difficult ethnic and sectarian set of divides on the big issues that I've identified, otherwise the incentives to violence are just too great.
COLLINS: James, your thoughts on the meetings. We've had a lot of questions here about how many times in fact the Iraqi government is able to meet. We think about the security situation and we talk about the Green Zone, as Larry mentioned. Are they able to meet enough and to talk about steps that they could take possibly to move forward?
DOBBINS: Well look, civil wars do come to an end. They come to an end either because one side or the other wins a definitive victory or when both sides become so exhausted that they're ready for serious parlay. The sides aren't so exhausted that they're ready for serious parlay, and we're not near the point at which one side or another is going to win a definitive victory.
So, I think that the violence is likely to continue and perhaps even increase over the coming months, more or less whatever the United States does. This is not because the Iraqi leaders don't get together often enough. It's because in part the Green Zone is detached from the rest of the country.
There are other leaders and other factions that are operating out in the rest of the country that aren't represented in the Green Zone and aren't controlled by those who are represented there.
COLLINS: We've also been hearing that some of what President Bush will make remarks about tonight is that in November of this year, all provinces will be under Iraqi control. That seems relatively quickly.
We also heard something from White House counselor Dan Bartlett today. I want to go ahead and play that sound and again, get your comments on the backside of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: The sectarian violence we're seeing in Iraq can only be solved by Iraqis, and the plan put forward tonight is an Iraqi initiative. What it requires, though, is our support.
What we've seen time and time again, Miles, in the security operations we've attempted in the past in Baghdad, had two real fundamental flaws. One, there were not enough Iraqi troops and U.S. troops to help hold the neighborhood we had cleared throughout Baghdad.
Secondly, and just as importantly, the rules of engagement. Where those troops could go, who they could go after, were severely restricted by politics in Baghdad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Two flaws that the White House says will be resolved now with the new plan. Larry, your thoughts. Not enough Iraqi troops? They are offering up more? The rules of engagement will be different this time. Will that make the difference?
DIAMOND: Well, there are not nearly enough troops of any kind. This should have been done three years ago and on a larger scale. But if it's only American troops knocking down doors, there's going to be blowback, Heidi, and it's going to embitter Iraqis more, escalate the fighting and killing on all sides. So, there needs to be an incentive for Iraqis to step forward and take responsibility for their own affair.
Otherwise, we're not going to get to this goal in November just as we didn't get to the goal General Casey had declared some time ago of having most of the responsibility assumed by this very moment.
And I just don't see where the leverage is of the Bush Administration when it puts in all these resources in advance without the political compromises coming.
COLLINS: James Dobbins, is November a realistic goal?
DOBBINS: Probably not. Most of the administration's goals have not been met over the last three years, so I wouldn't anticipate that this one will either.
I do think that we should be turning some responsibilities over to the Iraqis on a more expedited schedule, whether or not they're ready to assume them. I think the United States is going to have to stay engaged in Iraq for another five to 10 years, and I think we're only going to be able to do that if we reduce our profile and reduce our commitments to a level that the American people and the Iraqi people are likely to tolerate for a long time. So I think we do need to be turning functions over to the Iraqis whether or not they're ready to assume them and assuming a lower profile. And the November timetable may be a realistic objective for United States, even if in the end it can't be met.
COLLINS: To the both of you today, thank you so much, James Dobbins and Larry Diamond. We will hear more from the president tonight at 9:00.
HARRIS: And here's our e-mail question: What do you want to hear from the president tonight? We are reading your responses to that question in the NEWSROOM.
We're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A trailer with a view worth a cool million or more. Residents have made a landmark decision, but not everyone thinks it's such a good deal.
CNN's John Zarrella has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For a quarter of a century, Warren and Pauline Bailey have lived in this quaint, neatly kept mobile home park. Now they're double wide on a tiny parcel of land is worth more than they could ever have imagined.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just under $1.5 million.
ZARRELLA: The reason is simple -- location, location, location. Just ask the developers, Ocean Land Investments.
LOGAN PIERSON, OCEAN LAND INVESTMENTS, INC.: I would say this is the prime piece of real estate in Florida, and perhaps in the southeast. ZARRELLA: The 488 mobile homes in Briny Breezes sit 15 miles south of West Palm Beach. On the west side of the park, the intercostal waterway, on the east, just past the pavilion, on the other side of the dune, is the Atlantic Ocean. The developers offered half a billion dollars for the 43 acres. The individual owners are getting varying amounts based on location. But some folks, like the Baileys...
PAULINE BAILEY, RESIDENT: I'll miss all this, honey. Oh, my garden.
ZARRELLA: ... aren't so eager to cash in paradise.
(on camera): The money wasn't that attractive to you?
BAILEY: Not at all. It wouldn't change our lifestyle one iota.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Bob Zabitz will have plenty of memories too.
(on camera): Are you going to miss it here?
BOB ZABITZ, RESIDENT: I certainly am.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): But unlike the Baileys, Zabitz is ready to relocate and take the $800,000 he'll get for is sliver of sand.
ZABITZ: I won't be on the ocean, but I can still access the ocean. And have a half-a-million dollars in my pocket. you know. And now I can send my grandchildren to college, and my wife and I can take a couple of dream trips.
ZARRELLA: This morning, residents streamed from the auditorium, after learning 80 percent, more than the two-thirds required, had voted to sell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very, very sad to see it go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rather sad, you know, but I guess it's the best for everything, you know, everybody.
ZARRELLA: Now they have two years to move. For some, a dream come true. For others...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's all right. We'll be together wherever we are.
ZARRELLA: It's paradise lost.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: So John Zarrella joining us now live.
Eighty percent of them voted to sell. Are they happy with their decisions? ZARRELLA: You know, Heidi, the word I heard the most this morning as people left the auditorium was bittersweet. You have to understand that people here are generational. They've been together in this trailer park, this mobile home park, 15, 20, 25 years, long, long friendships. So while the money was way too good to pass up, they are going to be very, very sad, they told us, to have to leave this place. But they've got two years before they actually have to be out -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Two years to make some travel plans, it sounds like, at least for some of them.
John Zarrella, thank you.
HARRIS: "YOUR WORLD TODAY" at the top of the hour. Hala Gorani standing by with a preview for us.
Good morning, Hala.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Tony.
Well, "YOUR WORLD TODAY" and the entire world is awaiting President Bush's speech on changes to the Iraq policy. In anticipation of that, we will be discussing a possible troop surge in that country.
Also, we will be bringing you the story of the tale of two hospitals in Iraq. No story in recent days has better illustrated the tragedy of the sectarian divide in that country and the tragedy of the war and how it is pitting, in some neighborhoods, Shiites against Sunnis.
Also we'll take you to the heart of the battle of Haifa Street. We're embedded with U.S. troops there and we'll have that story. Hope you can join us at the top of the hour.
Back to you guys.
HARRIS: Oh, yes. We'll be there. Hala, thank you.
COLLINS: We want to go ahead and read some more of your e-mails now. We were asking you all morning long what you hope to hear from the president tonight when he speaks at 9:00 this evening and reveals some of the details of his new plan for the situation in Iraq. Want to get this one to you now.
First from Ken in Seattle: "President Bush needs to tell us not only the expected benchmarks that will signal progress in Iraq but also what will happen should those benchmarks not be reached. These needs to be attached to a timeline. Without specific measurable goals with specific consequences we will continue to sacrifice our men, women, money and political will on this quagmire."
HARRIS: And Mike from Page, Arizona, writes, "What I want to hear is what the good guys in Iraq have in mind for a plan, with timelines. The fact is that when we train their men to fight, and the fighting stars, they are no longer around."
COLLINS: "I am active in the U.S. Air Force, and I believe in what we are doing in the Middle East. Although I don't really agree with the way that we are going about it. I think that what we are doing is in the best interest for the safety of the U.S. and the world.
HARRIS: And one other -- do we time for one more?
OK, let me find it. Let me find it. Just a second.
And this from Darryl (ph), who writes: "Is what the president or the Democrats proposing what the soldiers and military leaders on the ground want or request? Because at the end of the day they are the ones that will benefit or suffer because of the choices."
Beautiful. OK, glad we were able to get that last one in.
COLLINS: Find out how Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech almost didn't happen, today in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Behind the scenes now on one of the most memorable moments in the civil rights movement, the March on Washington. We're learning that four simple words, "I have a dream," were not meant to be spoken that day. The King estate is granting CNN rare access to Dr. King's private papers and speeches, words that changed a nation.
Here's CNN's Soledad O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a dream...
CROWD: I have a dream...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... that my four children...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... will one day live in a nation...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... where they will not be judged by the color of their skin...
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: ... but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the march on Washington on August 28, 1963, is one of the most important in human history.
DR. ANDREW YOUNG, FMR. U.N. AMBASSADOR: It has become the defining moment of the human rights movement of our time. They know it in Russia, they know it in South Africa, they know it in China.
CROWD (SINGING): We shall overcome S. O'BRIEN: But the words "I have a dream" almost didn't make it into the speech.
DR. WYATT TEE WALKER, KING'S CHIEF OF STAFF: The inner circle of Dr. King felt that the "I have a dream" portion was hackneyed and trite because he had used it so many times in other cities.
S. O'BRIEN: Dr. King had been writing about this dream for decades. His inspiration can be traced back to these books from his library, now kept in this vault near Morehouse College, king's alma mater.
In his well-worn copy of "The Christ of the American Road," Dr. King underlined...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "America is a dream unfulfilled, a place where race and birth and color are transcended by the fact of a common brotherhood."
S. O'BRIEN: In this book, 'Horns and Halos," he pencils this note...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "A dream that did not come true."
S. O'BRIEN: Dr. King makes this message his own in the late '50s. In his speech "Shattered Dreams," he advises a crowd...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "You must honestly confront your shattered dream."
S. O'BRIEN: In the months before the march on Washington, Dr. King starts to focus on a positive dream.
KING: Don't even be afraid...
S. O'BRIEN: A dream that could be realized through the civil rights movement. He toys with this idea in an address to the National Press Club. But before the speech, he crosses out the paragraph.
The night before the march, Dr. King's inner circle wants a new message.
WALKER: I remember very vividly Andy Young and I going up there on the steps of the (INAUDIBLE) hotel, taking drafts of what we thought should be a new climax.
S. O'BRIEN: Staying up into the early-morning hours, they write and rewrite the speech. Dr. King wanted it to be a kind of "Gettysburg Address."
Then he tells them...
CLARENCE JONES, SO. CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONF.: "Thank you for your counsel. Thank you for your suggestions, all your help. I'm going upstairs to counsel with the lord." S. O'BRIEN: The next day, Dr. King takes this only known copy of his speech called "Normalcy - Never Again" with him. Nowhere does it mention his dream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
S. O'BRIEN: With the Lincoln Memorial behind him and facing a quarter of a million people, Dr. King delivers his speech.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was standing up and to the side.
KING: Now is the time...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And after he went through all this stuff about what we're here today, and so on and so forth, he paused. And what I did see him do...
KING: I still have a dream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... he turned the text over. He grabbed the podium. And he leaned back and looked out.
KING: I have a dream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was out in the crowd somewhere, and when he swung into "I have a dream," I said -- all expletives deleted -- after all that work that night before up and down the steps, and then he went onto the "I have a dream" section.
KING: Because I have a dream!
REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: He transformed those marble steps into a modern-day pulpit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I said to whoever that person sitting next to me was, I said, "The people here today, they don't know it, but they're about ready to go to church."
KING: Free at last! Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last!
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And for more on the life and works of Dr. King, go to thekingcenter.org.
COLLINS: I want get over To Fredricka Whitfield once again now in the NEWSROOM for another story, Fred, that you have been following, a suspicious package in Miami.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, South Florida, North Miami police have been called into the Navy recruiting office at 15th Avenue and 163rd Street because of reports of a suspicious package. They have called in the bomb squad. They have cordoned off the area. They are investigating and we will follow it. When we get more information, we'll bring it to you.
COLLINS: All right, Fredricka Whitfield, thank you.
And CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now.
HARRIS: "YOUR WORLD TODAY" is next continues with news happening across the globe and here at home. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins. Have a good day, everybody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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