Return to Transcripts main page
Paula Zahn Now
Iraq Study Group Releases Report; Interview With Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha; Search For Missing Father in Oregon Ends Tragically
Aired December 06, 2006 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening, everybody. Glad to have you with us tonight.
There's important news coming in to CNN all the time. And, tonight, we are choosing these top stories for a more in-depth look.
The "Top Story" in the war: a last chance in Iraq. The Baker- Hamilton commission's long-awaited report paints a very bleak picture of the situation in Iraq. Can President Bush change course before it's too late?
Then, on to the "Top Story" in survival tonight: It takes a heartbreaking turn. A desperate search in the Oregon mountains ends in tragedy.
And, then, the "Top Story" in health: losing face -- the startling results of a CNN investigation into what happens when some people go south of the border looking for plastic surgery bargains.
Well, it has, of course, been a day of huge headlines in the Iraq war. The Pentagon has announced that 10 U.S. troops died today in four separate attacks across Iraq.
Just hours ago, the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary. The vote was 95-2.
But tonight's "Top Story" in the war is the new report out by the Iraq Study Group. They call it a new approach. Some commissioners are also calling it our last chance. I was especially struck by the commission's dire picture of the situation right now.
Here is how co-chairman James Baker describes it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES BAKER, CO-CHAIRMAN, IRAQ STUDY GROUP: Struggling in a world of fear, the Iraqis themselves dare not dream. They have been liberated from the nightmare of a tyrannical order, only to face the nightmare of brutal violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Before I speak with two members of the Iraq Study Group, here's senior national correspondent John Roberts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If there were any lingering doubts about how bad things are in Iraq, they were pretty much erased today.
LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, IRAQ STUDY GROUP: We believe that the situation in Iraq today is very, very serious. We do not know if it can be turned around.
ROBERTS: The Iraq Study Group, in perhaps the most anticipated report since the 9/11 Commission, issued a harsh critique of administration policy.
JAMES BAKER, CO-CHAIRMAN, IRAQ STUDY GROUP: We do not recommend a stay-the-course solution. In our opinion, that approach is no longer viable.
ROBERTS: Instead, the 10-member bipartisan committee offered up some alternatives -- 79, in fact. One of the top recommendations is a version of what the White House ridiculed as cut-and-run, to pull back most U.S. combat troops by early 2008, and instead focus on accelerated training for Iraqi forces -- another big idea, launch an intense diplomatic mission to find a political solution, including unconditional talks with Iran and Syria.
HAMILTON: You cannot look at this area of the world, and pick and choose among the countries that you're going to deal with.
ROBERTS: It's a notion that President Bush has rejected, but one his father's former secretary of state suggests he should embrace, for the sake of trying to save Iraq.
BAKER: For 40 years, we talked to the Soviet Union, during a time when they were committed to wiping us off the face of the earth. So, you talk to your enemies, not just your friends.
ROBERTS: The study group acknowledged their plans aren't perfect, but, in another apparent shot at the White House's Iraq policy, insisted, there is a better way forward.
BAKER: If we do what we recommend in this report, it will certainly improve our chances for success.
ROBERTS: While there's nothing to suggest the president will adopt any of the recommendations, the Iraq Study Group cautioned him against cherry-picking the report. If Iraq is to be pulled back from the brink of failure, they said, it needs a comprehensive rescue mission, and one with bipartisan political support here at home.
LEON PANETTA, IRAQ STUDY GROUP MEMBER: We have made a terrible commitment in Iraq, in terms of our blood and our treasure. And I think we owe it to them to try to take one last chance at making Iraq work, and more importantly, to take one last chance at unifying this country on this war.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: So, John, you made it pretty clear in your report that no one knows what part of this report the president might ultimately endorse. But, if he does, particularly when it comes to this diplomatic effort, who would be the one person you would think of in the administration that could start, if not one-to-one talks with Syria and Iran, at least back-channel talks?
ROBERTS: I was thinking about that this -- this afternoon, Paula.
And I think that the most high-profile person who might be adept at bringing together the disparate factions in the Middle East might be Zalmay Khalilzad, who is the current U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
After that, in terms of high-profile people, it gets pretty thin. But, keep in mind, when you read the report, Baker and Hamilton and their colleagues suggested that this is of such importance, that it needs to happen at the highest levels. And they say it needs to either happen with the secretary of state or with President Bush himself driving this forward.
So, they're not saying put an envoy out there. They're saying, get the people at the highest levels to tackle this. And, so far, Condoleezza Rice, who is, you know, schooled in -- is -- is a Russia expert, hasn't -- hasn't shown that much dexterity in the Middle East. And President Bush has refused to get involved, unlike some of his predecessors.
ZAHN: John Roberts, thanks.
If you wouldn't mind standing by, I'm going to come back to you in a few minutes.
But now the political implications of the Iraq Study Group's reports -- tonight, the president's critics are calling it a repudiation of his Iraq policy in particular, and his foreign policy in general. For years, they have been labeled, both, as cowboy diplomacy.
We asked chief national correspondent John King to look at whether the commission's report really is a political putdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The House of Representatives...
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His is a foreign policy marked by clear lines...
BUSH: I will not wait on events while dangers gather.
KING: ... articulated with a sharp tongue...
BUSH: States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil. KING: ... and anchored on the idea, a new Iraq would transform the Middle East, and more.
BUSH: So, it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
KING: Now, to embrace the gloomy verdict of the Iraq Study Group, Mr. Push would have to concede he got just about all of it wrong.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, SENIOR FELLOW IN FOREIGN POLICY STUDIES, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: A White House that has prided itself on resolve, and optimism, and staying the course, and believing that history was on its side is now being sobered in a way that's even tougher, because of the level of confidence, verging on arrogance, that has always been one of George Bush's characteristics as a politician.
KING: Wrong, the report says, to give Iraq an open-ended troop commitment, wrong to emphasize combat operations over training, wrong not to spend more time on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and wrong not to sit down with Iran and Syria, in an effort to calm the insurgency and sectarian killings.
LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, IRAQ STUDY GROUP: If you don't talk to them, we don't see much likelihood of progress being made.
KING: It is a rejection of what critics call Mr. Bush's no- regrets cowboy diplomacy and his insistence, for more than three years now, that his Iraq strategy was working.
BRUCE BUCHANAN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS: Particularly Karl Rove, who is a student of presidential history, has impressed upon President Bush the great importance of sticking to your guns as president, and not becoming someone who is perceived as easily changed by either public opinion or political opposition.
KING: But this highly critical Iraq report comes just a month after midterm election voters also delivered a rebuke. And some allies say the president has no choice, at home and abroad, to learn a lesson.
KEN DUBERSTEIN, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: One of the things I think President Bush is about to understand is that compromise is not a four-letter word.
KING: Loyalists acknowledge, some changes are necessary, but insist, 20 or more years from now, a stubborn streak critics call dangerous will be viewed more favorably.
MARY MATALIN, FORMER ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BUSH: You have to look through the lens of history. If it's 41, or it's President Reagan, or it's Truman, or it's FDR, or it's Churchill, or it's Lincoln, no wartime president was ever acknowledged for his successes during his lifetime.
KING: Perhaps, but, at the moment, success in Iraq is a distant hope -- this president's immediate challenge, fixing a policy the new report suggests is perilously close to catastrophic failure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: So, John, we heard the president lay out this, in his second inaugural address, his vision for what he thought American foreign policy should be, particularly in his second term. Does that mean that's all but gone out the window?
KING: Well, the White House, Paula, would say stalled, not derailed.
But the facts speak for themselves. The president hoped a shining new democracy in Iraq would not only stir up reform in Iran and Syria, but encourage the Palestinians to demand a cleaner government, and also encourage reform in Saudi Arabia, in Jordan, in Egypt, and across the Persian Gulf. The facts speak for themselves. Even administration officials concede privately, because of all the turmoil in Iraq, almost all of those democratic reform efforts have gone in the other direction.
ZAHN: So, John, do you have anything to do in a couple minutes?
KING: I will hang around.
ZAHN: Because, if you don't, I would like you to hang around.
Good, because I am going to come back to both you and John Roberts to listen to part of a conversation I had just a short time ago with two members of the Iraq Study Group.
I spoke with William Perry, who served as secretary of defense during Bill Clinton's administration, and Republican Alan Simpson, a former U.S. senator from Wyoming.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: The report your group issued today calls the situation in Iraq grave and deteriorating.
Is this report anything but a rejection of Bush foreign policy, Senator Simpson?
ALAN SIMPSON, IRAQ STUDY GROUP MEMBER: Well, I don't think so.
We weren't out to -- to embarrass the president. Ten people of goodwill, not Republican or Democrat -- five Democrats, five Republicans -- who respect, admire, and enjoy each other, coming together with a bipartisan report submitted to the president, not to blow the president out of the water or the vice president out of the water or the Congress out of the water, just saying that whatever's happening there is no longer appropriate, and we think we have a better way, a new solution, nothing more mysterious than that. But I can tell you, it has been turned into a sinister pile of garbage.
ZAHN: Well, let me ask Secretary Perry about it.
Senator Simpson saying it wasn't the intent to embarrass the president here, but should the president be embarrassed by some of these recommendations and what they reveal about what has happened in Iraq up to this point?
WILLIAM PERRY, IRAQ STUDY GROUP MEMBER: I think the president was looking for a way to change course. He is already starting to make some changes in course. And this lays out a very comprehensive program.
ZAHN: But your study group has also said that the president must implement all of your recommendations, and, if he doesn't, the -- the Iraqi government could collapse, that al Qaeda could expand, and that the global standing of the U.S. could be diminished.
What gives you any faith that the president would buy into all these recommendations?
SIMPSON: We have no idea. We're men of goodwill and good faith who presented it. He doesn't have to do 77 of them or 16 of them or 32 of them. That's not a condition of anything we did.
We just set out some various options on a situation where, if others have other views -- and there are going to be plenty of them rolling in -- all -- all -- I want the only touchstone to be, for the people I have heard whining and bitching and moaning about not doing anything in a bipartisan way about the singular issues that confront us, like Iraq, immigration, Social Security, those things, at least, if they don't like this, I don't want to listen to any more of that babble that -- that people of good faith can't do something together.
ZAHN: But, Secretary Perry, you would have to acknowledge that, while you all should be applauded for coming together in a bipartisan spirit, does this really mean anything at all, unless the president buys into the plan?
PERRY: Well, not only the president, but also the Congress has to buy into the plan. And we have...
ZAHN: But, without the president, Congress can't act on any of this, can it?
PERRY: That's correct. This is a -- first and foremost, a responsibility of the executive branch. So, it does require the president to want to act on it. And I have some reason to hope that he will.
ZAHN: What gives you that hope?
PERRY: Well, we met with him this morning. And he was very positive, very -- leaning very far forward. ZAHN: Senator Simpson, in closing tonight, why didn't your group offer a fixed timetable for some of these 79 recommendations?
SIMPSON: Why didn't...
ZAHN: You are getting criticized for that as well.
SIMPSON: Oh, we will -- we will be criticized for everything. The far left, the far right, the -- the media will rip and snort and blow us apart. We have all been there.
The reason we didn't is because nobody we interviewed suggested it was a good idea. The people on the ground, the military, former secretaries state, former secretary of defense, Brzezinski, all the people we talked to said, you can't set a date.
So, guess what? We didn't. But we did say that, in the first quarter of 2008, that, depending on circumstances on the ground, we could be out of there, but leaving a support system and just moving the combat troops out, but leaving support, special forces, Ranger, the people that do strikes on al Qaeda, if they need to. And that's what we propose.
ZAHN: Appreciate having both of your perspectives tonight.
Senator Simpson, Secretary Perry, thank you both.
PERRY: Thank you, Paula.
SIMPSON: Thank you very much.
ZAHN: And congratulations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Let's get back to John King and John Roberts.
So, John King -- I have got two Johns tonight, so I have to use your last names to make sure that I'm talking to the right one.
You heard what Alan Simpson just said about the criticism coming from all directions about this report. But he says, at least it's a step in the right direction; it's a beginning.
Is it?
KING: It sure is a beginning, Paula.
And the question now is, what will the president do at the moment? Many say the president is stubborn, but he certainly is not deaf. He heard the message from the voters in the election. He can read the very sober assessment in this report. And he says he will take it seriously.
There's no question he wants to do something to turn his policy around. So, the burden is first on the president. And, then, if the president does make substantial shifts, even if not everything in this report, but quite significantly toward what's laid out in this report, then, the burden falls on the Democrats.
Can they get a consensus to go forward? On this day, listening to all the reaction, everyone would say, boy, that is a steep hill and a big challenge. But the next move is clearly the president's.
ZAHN: Is that the sense you got, John Roberts, in talking to folks today, steep hell to climb? Do they think this really, ultimately, will have impact?
ROBERTS: I -- I think it's going to have some sort of impact. If -- if not among the folks in the administration, it will among the public.
I -- I think that this is -- you know, I said this is the most anxiously anticipated report since the 9/11 Commission. And I think that, publicly, and in the national psyche, it's going to have a similar effect.
I mean, Lee Hamilton, one of the most respected statesmen in America, James Baker, who I happen to think is one of the most intelligent people in America, all getting together with their colleagues, to say that the administration policy is flawed, and that something has to change going forward, or American men and women are going to continue to die, and Iraq is going to continue to be a mess, and Iraqi people will die, and the whole region could go up in flames -- so, how the president ignores this or -- or doesn't adopt at least some of the recommendations is beyond me, Paula.
ZAHN: All right, John Roberts, John King, thank you both.
KING: Thank you.
ZAHN: And we have much more to consider in our in-depth coverage of the Iraq Study Group's report -- coming up next, more on the president's reaction and the other advice he's getting about what to do in Iraq. Will he really change course?
Also, the reaction on Capitol Hill, where some prominent Democrats today are saying, "I told you so."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We continue now with our "Top Story" in the war in Iraq.
Time is running out -- that according to the bipartisan report on Iraq just released today. The report offers some 79 recommendations and scathing criticism of the president's policies, and it puts him in a very tight spot tonight.
Here's more now from White House correspondent Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: His back against the wall, President Bush tried to put the best face on the Iraq Study Group's report.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This report will give us all an opportunity to find common ground, for the good of the country.
HENRY: But make no mistake, this was a stinging rebuke.
LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, IRAQ STUDY GROUP: The current approach is not working.
HENRY: It came just one day after a startling admission from the president's own nominee for defense secretary.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: Do you believe that we are currently winning in Iraq?
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE: No, sir.
HENRY: How does the president turn the corner? He was careful not to endorse any of the panel's 79 recommendations.
BUSH: We -- we will take every proposal seriously, and we will act in a timely fashion.
HENRY: How timely depends on when the Pentagon and National Security Council finish separate reviews of Iraq policy ordered by the president. He had been expected to use these internal reports to cherry-pick more favorable options. But the weight of the bipartisan report may be too much to ignore.
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: I think that puts enormous pressure on the president to say, you know, we're going to have to do it another way, a different way.
HENRY: Panel member Leon Panetta, a veteran of crisis management in the Clinton White House, had some advice for Mr. Bush.
LEON PANETTA, IRAQ STUDY GROUP MEMBER: Ultimately, you can find consensus here. This country cannot be at war and be as divided as we are today. You have got to unify this country. And I would suggest to the president that what we did in this group can perhaps serve as an example.
HENRY: But Bush intimates insists the president has to put defending the country above finding unity.
ANDREW CARD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: So, I would ask the president to step back, take a good, objective look at all of these recommendations, ask his advisers to take a good look at them, get the fresh eyes of a secretary of defense, Bob Gates, and let him participate in making recommendations, but, then, have the courage to make decisions that he thinks are right, not based on whether -- whether or not there's a political consensus.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HENRY: The president used to keep members of Congress at arm's length. But, after receiving the Iraq Study Group's report today, he quickly invited over a bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss it.
And, afterwards, he asked Senator John McCain, a former rival, to stay for a rare one-on-one chat, early signs, perhaps, that the president realizes he needs to start reaching out, he needs to start really making friends on Capitol Hill, something he really didn't do the first six years -- Paula.
ZAHN: Early signs -- we will see how long that lasts.
White House correspondent Ed Henry, thanks.
HENRY: Thank you.
ZAHN: Our next stop is on Capitol Hill. The Iraq Study Group says Congress and the president must come together to confront the Iraq crisis. Next, with so much bad blood, is that even remotely possible?
And the military has a huge stake in our Iraq policy. We're going to get reaction from the Pentagon, as our in-depth coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: And there's much more reaction to our "Top Story" in the Iraq war tonight, the Iraq Study Group's strong rebuke of the president's policies.
Now, just months ago, he was insisting he would stay the course. And, only weeks ago, he denied the U.S. was losing ground in Iraq. But, today, the bipartisan report slams both ideas. And the reaction from Capitol Hill critics was sharp and swift.
Here's congressional correspondent Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just the image the Iraq Study Group says the country needs: Democrats and Republicans confronting the Iraq crisis side by side.
But the first reflex of Democrats, poised to take control of Congress, was, "I told you so."
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: ... the Iraq Study Group is a rejection of the policies of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: I salute this working group, the Iraq working group, for agreeing that the present Bush policy in Iraq has been a failure.
BASH: Democratic leaders even used the occasion to promise not only to pursue aggressive oversight of future Iraq policy, but to revisit the debate over going to war in the first place.
REID: We are going to look at how the intelligence was manipulated prior to going to war.
BASH: Senator Harry Reid called the Iraq Study Group's report vindication, and Democrats said the recommendations are a good first step, noting, some ideas mirror their own.
PELOSI: We have written to the president on more than one occasion to say, the mission in Iraq must be changed from combat to training.
BASH: But most were careful not to immediately embrace the commission's recommendations. Democrats may have seized congressional power on a wave of anti-war sentiment, but their goal is to make clear, Iraq is still the president's war, and it's his responsibility to change course.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Quite frankly, it is a call on the president, our commander in chief, to move forward with new leadership and with a new candor in dealing with the people of Iraq.
BASH: As for Republicans, many offered cautious praise for the panel's work. GOP lawmakers, wounded from the beating they took at the polls, see this as an opportunity to fix a mission gone wrong.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: We need a change of course. There is a broad consensus of that. But how exactly that course change, course correction, is done is really going to have to be done by the commander in chief.
BASH: The Senate did take a significant step in pushing that new course, voting overwhelmingly to make Robert Gates the next defense secretary.
(on camera): That swift endorsement was not so much a show of support for Robert Gates, but, rather, a sign of how much Republicans and Democrats want someone new open to changes at the helm of the Pentagon -- Paula.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Let's dig a little deeper now with two prominent critics of the president's policies from both parties, first, Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Vietnam vet, who forced the issue a year ago by calling for reduction of U.S. forces, and insisting that stay the course was no longer an option.
Always good to see you, sir. Welcome.
REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: So, the group makes it very clear that things in Iraq are very grave, getting worse all the time. And they even went so far to say that there is no path for success.
So, even if the president were to have adopt all of these recommendations, will America have lost Iraq?
MURTHA: I -- I think it's well on the way to losing Iraq.
I don't see any way that staying the course -- they're certainly saying, don't stay the course. They're certainly saying, change direction. And I think the public said that on Election Day.
And -- and this -- this is a bipartisan group, who went on for seven or eight months, really assessing, these very high-level, very thoughtful people. And they're saying, this is a disaster, and even their recommendations, if they're followed, each one of them are followed, they still may not be success.
So, it's -- it's not a very good picture for the -- for the president. But he has got to change direction. I have said this over and over again. He has got to change direction, get other people involved.
ZAHN: There are conflicting reports, tonight, sir, whether the president will accept any of this report. What are the consequences, in your judgment, if he doesn't? And do you have any confidence he will?
MURTHA: Well, it's very interesting.
They say, he ought to talk to Syria, he ought to talk to Iran. He doesn't even talk to Democrats and Republicans, let alone -- alone Syria and Iran. So, I don't have any confidence that he will follow these recommendations.
But he says, let's reach out and be bipartisan. I hope he doesn't mean, by saying bipartisan, let's take his -- what he decides is going to be bipartisan. No, I -- I -- I'm hopeful that the election itself and this bipartisan group will -- will make a change in direction. I -- I think you will see a change in direction. I think you're seeing signals by Secretary Gates being confirmed.
COOPER: Congressman Murtha, there are a number of people out there tonight who say, while this is a step in the right direction, this report just doesn't go far enough. And they're highly critical of how anything is supposed to be implemented.
Do you have that same problem?
MURTHA: I have the same problem, because they say, we will only implement this depending on conditions on the ground.
Well, that's the same thing as stay the course. So, I talked to Leon. I talked to Secretary Baker today. They have done what they think is the right thing. But I think it's almost too much of a compromise. The only answer is to reduce our presence and let the Iraqis -- you have got to give the Iraqis the incentive to take over themselves. That's the problem. And that's the thing I have been working for and I keep talking about. The Iraqis want to take over. The public opinion polls show that. So, I -- I expect in the end that we're going to have to leave Iraq. It just depends how we leave it.
ZAHN: Congressman John Murtha. Always good to have you. Thanks for your time tonight.
MURTHA: Nice talking to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Now on to the Republican side. Joining me is South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. He also thinks the U.S. must change course but he's called for more American troops to stabilize Iraq. Welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: Thank you, Paula. Thank you very much.
ZAHN: First of all, do you think this report has any chance at all of being adopted by the president?
GRAHAM: I hope the president will take it seriously because these are great Americans who come together to make recommendations. But to me the central issue for the president, for you, for me, for every American is do you believe Iraq is the central front of the war on terror? If you believe it's a sideshow, a war of choice, it's doing more harm than good, you would have a different strategy.
I believe, Paula, it is a central battlefront in the war on terror. And the outcome there affects the overall war and our own security.
ZAHN: But come back to that question. I asked you whether you think this Iraq study group's blueprint is the way to not lose the war? Does it go far enough?
GRAHAM: No. I don't think it does. I think their basic suggestion of reducing American combat capability in half by 2008 misunderstands the dynamics on the ground. I wouldn't want to be one of the trainers left behind embedded in Iraqi unit that doesn't have any air power or military capability to help the Americans if they get in a bad situation.
What I am suggesting in the short-term is a surge of military capability to provide stability so we can do a better job of training the troops, the Iraqi troops, the police force and allowing the politicians in Iraq to find political compromise in a level -- in a way where there's not so much violence. So I don't think it goes far enough.
If you believe it's the central battle front in the war on terror, fight it with everything you have.
ZAHN: So, if you don't think it goes far enough and there's no guarantee the president is going to accept all of the recommendations, which is what the group says has to be done, are you pretty much telling America, then, there is no way to leave Iraq without losing given these conditions?
GRAHAM: No. I'm saying we all agree we're not winning now. We're winning every battle. The military has done a wonderful job, but the extremists are winning out over moderates.
What I am saying is if we agree we're not winning moderation over extremism, then the question is can we afford to lose? And the answer is no. According to the report, a loss in Iraq creates regional chaos.
The issue is how can you best secure victory? Political solutions are the ultimate goal. I believe it's chicken and egg stuff. You've got to have a better security environment before you have a better political environment. And you don't have enough troops to create that better political environment.
To me it's simple, we've made a mistake in the beginning that has haunted us to this very day, don't compound the mistake by withdrawing troops.
ZAHN: And that was senator Lindsey Graham. Thank you.
The Iraq study group'S recommendations are huge political risks for Washington Democrats and Republicans, but much more importantly, the American and Iraqis whose lives are on the line day in and day out, next in our in depth coverage, we're going to Baghdad and the Pentagon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Welcome back. The reaction to today's explosive Iraq study group report is our top story. The report sees Iraq deteriorating and sliding toward chaos and warns of a U.S. defeat unless big changes are made in the primary mission of U.S. forces. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is standing by in Baghdad, senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre is on duty at the Pentagon tonight.
And we're going to start with Nic here where the lives of 10 more American troops were sacrificed today, at least 65 more Iraqis died.
Nic, I know you've had the opportunity to talk with some folks today. What is the reaction to the recommendations?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's very interesting, Paula. The Iraq survey group said that four out of every five Iraqis have a negative view of the U.S. impact on Iraq, and that's what we found when we talked to people today. They said they really didn't expect anything great to come out of the study group, that they had no good impressions that the United States was about to do something good. And that was reflected on the television news here, Paula. There was very little coverage given to this announcement, to any of the details within the report, Paula.
ZAHN: So is it a matter they just don't take it seriously? ROBERTSON: They don't think it's going to do any good for them. They don't think that whatever the United States does, whoever's in the leadership, is going to make a difference -- whoever's calling the shots, whether the Democrats get a bigger call, there's hopes there that that could bring a change. But the majority of people here quite simply feel that the United States is not improving things for them. And it doesn't matter what this group says, they don't see a better outcome. Expectations from the people are very low, Paula.
ZAHN: Let's talk, Jamie, for a moment about some of the recommendations, among them drawing down combat troops, improving the training for Iraqi forces. That's something we've heard before. Is there anything significantly different in this report than what we've heard from some Pentagon officials?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well some of it is the strategy that U.S. military commanders are pursuing now. This increasing the number of trainers, we're seeing that already happen, trying to speed up the transition to Iraqi forces -- but there's some significant differences, also.
For instance, the Iraq study group wants to basically put the Iraqi government on notice that U.S. troops are going to leave one way or another, whether or not they make -- whether or not things get better and they make improvements. It also says calls for these negotiations with the neighbors of Iraq. And that's something that while some people at the Pentagon think might be a good idea, they don't see it as having much prospect for really doing much in terms of Iraq.
So on the one hand, there's some new wrinkles, but a lot of this is what U.S. military commanders are already doing. And the Iraq study group, by the way, says in the end it has to come down to what the commanders on the ground say.
ZAHN: All right. Jamie McIntyre, Nic Robertson, thank you both.
There are other top stories to talk about tonight. Next, we're going to take you to the Oregon wilderness and the hunt for a missing man. Searchers started the day with high hopes. We'll tell you what happened next.
Then a little later on, cosmetic surgery at huge discounts with huge problems. The shocking result of a CNN investigation is tonight's top story in health.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Our top survival story tonight has taken a dramatic and tragic turn. We've been following the desperate search for a missing man in Oregon who was stranded in the snowy wilderness for more than a week.
James Kim did everything he could for his wife and two young daughters before leaving them and their stuck car to search for help. Monday, rescuers found his wife and their two little girls. And today, rescuers found his body six miles away from the car.
Thelma Gutierrez has the very latest on this incredibly moving story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It came on the fifth day in the search for James Kim.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other shift found him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Found him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. The other shift just found him.
GUTIERREZ: Word that the missing man had been spotted. Immediately two SWAT members were lowered to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
GUTIERREZ: They were too late.
BRIAN ANDERSON, UNDERSHERIFF, JOSEPHINE COUNTY: At 12:03 hours today the body of James Kim was located down in the Big Windy Creek.
GUTIERREZ: It was almost too much to bear for the man who headed up the grueling search for 35 year-old James Kim.
The discovery was made when a pilot spotted Kim's body in the dense woods.
ANDERSON: He was down in that drainage, and he was about a half mile from the Rogue River.
GUTIERREZ: One hundred search and rescue teams had been combing this rugged terrain. They had found clues, first a pair of gray pants, then pieces of an Oregon state map, two gray sweatshirts, a tee shirt, a sock, and a blue girl's skirt, all laid out in some sort of pattern.
ANDERSON: He was very motivated.
GUTIERREZ: James Kim died trying to save his family, his wife Kati, four year-old Penelope, and seven month-old Sabine (ph).
Their terrible ordeal began the day after Thanksgiving as they were heading to the Oregon coast. Detectives say the Kims missed a highway turnoff. They pulled out a map and found a back country road.
The terrain there is treacherous, with lots of snow, sheer cliffs and sudden drops. The Kims' Saab station wagon got stuck in the snow. For seven days the parents ate berries and drank melted snow. They gave rice crackers and baby food to their children. Kati Kim breast fed both of them to keep them alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They ran out of gas. They were running the car during the day and at night to keep warm. Then they started to burn their tires.
GUTIERREZ: On Saturday, after seven days in cold, James Kim left his stranded family to search for help and then vanished. On Monday, a helicopter hired by the Kim family rescued Kati Kim and her two kids. Today, the rescuers found James Kim.
ANDERSON: Most of us have breathed and lived this for days. And yes, you do take it personal. I'm crushed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUTIERREZ (on camera): All along, the Kim family had remained optimistic that he would be found. In fact earlier today, they arranged to have 18 survival kits actually air dropped into the three- mile area where he was believed to be. Within that survival kit: warm clothes, food, also a private, personal note from his family to James Kim, who now happened to be in seclusion and also in mourning -- Paula.
ZAHN: And I know that no one's wanted to trample on their privacy, but do you get any sense that there's a sense of frustration from the Kim family, that, in fact it was the private helicopter that they hired that played the critical role in finding Mr. Kim?
GUTIERREZ: Well, you know, Paula, we can't know exactly how the Kim family feels about that. But we can tell you that, according to the authorities who are out here who have been leading this search, they have been very grateful to the Kim family.
They said this is a small county. There's no way that they would have been able to put three helicopters up in the sky to look for him for the past five days. They were very happy that the Kim family was able to aid in that search.
ZAHN: It is such a sad story.
Thelma Gutierrez, thank you.
We're going to change our focus quite a bit -- and our tone, and move on to a quick "Biz Break".
(MARKET REPORT)
ZAHN: Response to the latest dangerous e. coli outbreak goes nationwide. Taco Bell has pulled green onions out of all 5,800 stores after preliminary tests showed signs of potentially deadly e. coli bacteria. The outbreak has made so far at least three dozen people sick and forced Taco Bell to temporarily close stores in parts of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Tonight's top story in health is the result of a CNN investigation. Every year, thousands of people go to Mexico for big savings on plastic surgery. Sometimes they find that saving all that money leads to disaster.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAHN: Our top story in health tonight, you could call it medical tourism or you could call it a very dangerous gamble. Last year about a half a million Americans tried to escape the high cost of medical care here by hitting the road, traveling as far as India or even Singapore for that matter. Tens of thousands went south of the border, though, too, for plastic surgery. But for many of them the search for a bargain led to disaster. Ed Lavandera has the result of a CNN investigation into tonight's "Vital Signs."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good. Super tight. Good.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Her hard work in the gym has kept Susan Witcraft as fit as a woman half her age. But at 50, she desperately wanted her face to match her figure.
SUSAN WITCRAFT, PATIENT: And my face to me now looks kind of tired. My neck is sagging. It doesn't quite match how I feel inside, and I want my face to reflect how I feel.
LAVANDERA: Frustrated by U.S. prices for plastic surgery, Susan joined the 100,000 people living in the United States who travel south of the border each year looking for deals.
PAT MARINO, FACELIFT MEXICO.COM: For roughly a third of the cost they can come here, rest, recoup in this luxurious, magnificent place and fly home and nobody will ever know.
LAVANDERA: Susan paid FaceliftMexico $6,500 for a surgery and a spa vacation at Casa Verde in San Miguel de Allende. She came in looking like this and left like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This hospital is not too fancy like in Beverly Hills and New York, but the level of the surgery is the same.
LAVANDERA: But traveling south for cosmetic surgery is not always so successful. A five-month CNN investigation found that some Americans are coming home with deep scars and life-threatening infections. This woman, Melissa Bold (ph), died after traveling to Costa Rica for work on her tummy and breasts. Her husband says Doctor Alberto Arguello promised the surgery was not life-threatening. Doctor Arguello's lawyer Will Solano (ph) told CNN, quote, "every plastic surgeon in the world has at least one patient die" and that Melissa had a "good outcome" but died of an embolism after her surgery.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently cautioned Americans about the risk of having surgery abroad.
DR. TOMOTHY MARTEN, PLASTIC SURGEON: Half the surgery is the follow-up care and in most of these cosmetic surgery tourism type trips, the patients are only with their physician for five or seven or perhaps 10 days, and many complications are just getting started at that point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hopefully something can be done.
LAVANDERA: Dr. Marten is treating a San Francisco woman whose Argentine breast implants developed a raging infection and had to be removed. She is too embarrassed by her permanent scars to be identified.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The doctor came in and said the surgery hadn't gone as well as he had hoped.
LAVANDERA: That Argentine doctor is Mario Lodolo. He also operated on Marcella Greenberg's (ph) nose and on Jodi Shapiro, who wanted a tummy tuck, liposuction, and breast implants.
JODI SHAPIRO, PATIENT: They had these packages. Come, we put you up in a hotel. We put you up at the airport.
LAVANDERA: Instead, she ended up in an emergency room with deep scars and infected wounds that will be hard to fix.
SHAPIRO: I saw green puss oozing out of my scars and my stitches were now opening, and there was gaping holes.
LAVANDERA: CNN visited Dr. Lodolo in Buenos Aires. He provided us with many positive references and verified his academic credentials.
DR. MARIO LODOLO, PLASTIC SURGEON (through translator): These patients consented to a surgical operation and shortly thereafter were defaming me in various ways.
LAVANDERA: The doctor refused to comment, citing doctor/patient confidentiality, but he did say.
LODOLO: Complications exist in all surgeries.
LAVANDERA: But both Jodi and the San Francisco woman say they have scars that won't heal.
SHAPIRO: He cannibalized me. I'm an Etch-a-Sketch.
LAVANDERA: In Mexico, Dr. Carlos Barrera says Americans looking for a deal also need to check credentials.
DR. CARLOS BARRERA, PLASTIC SURGEON: When patients come to Mexico, they have to be sure looking for a doctor who has this government issue of specialty.
LAVANDERA: His patient Susan Witcraft showed CNN pictures that showed the success of her low-cost Mexican surgery and says she's happy that finally she has a face that matches her body.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: She was one of the lucky ones. We're just minutes away from the top of the hour, "LARRY KING LIVE." Larry's guests tonight are the cochairman of the Iraq Study Group, James Baker and Lee Hamilton. We'll be right back, don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: And that wraps it up for all of us here tonight. Tomorrow night, Vice President Cheney's openly gay daughter reveals she's pregnant, the first child for Mary Cheney and her partner. News that's sure to re-ignite the debate over gay rights. And how will this couple deal with the anti-gay policies in Virginia where they live?
Also shocking murder on the Gulf Coast. A local sportscaster suspected of killing his estranged wife. Police say they found a pre- killing checklist inside his FEMA trailer. All that and more coming up tomorrow night. We will be back same time, same place. See you then. Thanks again for dropping by tonight. "LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
