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Iraqi Reaction
Aired September 23, 2003 - 13:03 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go quickly to Baghdad now, where word of the president's speech continues to filter in.
CNN's Walter Rodgers standing by with reaction from there -- Walt.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
It will take some days probably for the full impact of President Bush's speech to distill into the public consciousness in Iraq. Still, the president said things which are certainly going to have a positive resonance here, not in the least of which he says his goal was a self government by the Iraqi people of Iraq. The difficulty of course, the president gave no timetable for that, and there is increased resentment here, we sense it almost daily, about the continuing military occupation of Iraq by a foreign power, to wit, the United States and the other coalition forces.
That being the case, the patience of the Iraqis is beginning to chafe a little around the edges. When the president delivered his speech, of course it was carried by the Arab networks in many of the coffee cafes around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, as you might expect. Perhaps there was some indifference.
But when we spoke with some Iraqis afterwards, you could sense the impatience, how the Iraqis are tiring of the occupation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I prefer to have the U.N. policing Iraq than the Americans and the British. The Americans are after our natural wealth here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We want the Americans to leave us alone. We can handle our own business. They should give more power to the Iraqi interior ministry, and they will provide us with internal security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RODGERS: Some of those criticisms are inherently unfair, of course, because the United States is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this country, refurbishing schools, refurbishing health clinics, many of which had fallen into disrepair during the regime of Saddam Hussein. Drinking water has been restored in more than a few places. And as the president pointed out in his speech, no longer can an Iraqi dictator use weapons of mass destruction. The difficulty of course is the growing impatience of the Iraqi people, and as one of the Iraqis said, they would prefer the United Nations police here. The situation seems to be that more police are needed, more soldiers are needed, because as one Iraqi shaikh told me recently, without the Americans here, this country would deteriorate into civil war. The president seems to realize that. That's why he and other members of his administration have said repeatedly, a premature American evacuation of Iraq would be disastrous -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Walt Rodgers, live from Baghdad, thank you.
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 September 23, 2003 - 13:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go quickly to Baghdad now, where word of the president's speech continues to filter in.
CNN's Walter Rodgers standing by with reaction from there -- Walt.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
It will take some days probably for the full impact of President Bush's speech to distill into the public consciousness in Iraq. Still, the president said things which are certainly going to have a positive resonance here, not in the least of which he says his goal was a self government by the Iraqi people of Iraq. The difficulty of course, the president gave no timetable for that, and there is increased resentment here, we sense it almost daily, about the continuing military occupation of Iraq by a foreign power, to wit, the United States and the other coalition forces.
That being the case, the patience of the Iraqis is beginning to chafe a little around the edges. When the president delivered his speech, of course it was carried by the Arab networks in many of the coffee cafes around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, as you might expect. Perhaps there was some indifference.
But when we spoke with some Iraqis afterwards, you could sense the impatience, how the Iraqis are tiring of the occupation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I prefer to have the U.N. policing Iraq than the Americans and the British. The Americans are after our natural wealth here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We want the Americans to leave us alone. We can handle our own business. They should give more power to the Iraqi interior ministry, and they will provide us with internal security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RODGERS: Some of those criticisms are inherently unfair, of course, because the United States is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this country, refurbishing schools, refurbishing health clinics, many of which had fallen into disrepair during the regime of Saddam Hussein. Drinking water has been restored in more than a few places. And as the president pointed out in his speech, no longer can an Iraqi dictator use weapons of mass destruction. The difficulty of course is the growing impatience of the Iraqi people, and as one of the Iraqis said, they would prefer the United Nations police here. The situation seems to be that more police are needed, more soldiers are needed, because as one Iraqi shaikh told me recently, without the Americans here, this country would deteriorate into civil war. The president seems to realize that. That's why he and other members of his administration have said repeatedly, a premature American evacuation of Iraq would be disastrous -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Walt Rodgers, live from Baghdad, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
