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General Petraeus, are we winning the war? Are we being successful?
I've been one who's often been uncomfortable with terms like winning and losing.
I mean, what we're trying to do generally is to make progress,
and I think that as you work around the area of responsibility,
there has been substantial progress in certain areas,
and then there have in other areas been some setbacks.
I think Yemen is probably an area that obviously you can't call that progress;
that is more of a setback
as over time something we've focused--some of us--on for over two and a half years,
and we've just now in the last year been able to provide assistance to Yemen
and to see the Yemenis go after these forces
that have put down roots on their soil.
In many of the other areas in the theater, however, we have seen progress,
particularly against al-Qaeda and other transnational extremist elements.
On the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia leading the way
has done a very impressive job combating al-Qaeda and extremist elements.
I mentioned al-Qaeda in Iraq already substantially diminished--
still present, still a concern but very substantially diminished
from the height of its capabilities in 2006-2007.
The rest of that portion of the area of responsibility--the Levant and so forth--
also a reduction, I think, in the capability and so forth of al-Qaeda.
So as you look around the area of responsibility,
we typically say that al-Qaeda has been diminished
but it still is very much present and still very much represents a threat
and still very much wants to carry out attacks against our homeland,
against the homelands of our partners, and various regional allies as well.
We've been at war now for eight years.
People are getting tired.
They're asking, "When will it end?"
I think the effort against transnational extremists goes on for the foreseeable future.
Obviously, what we want to do is to get situations to the point
that we were able to in Iraq where you can reduce your forces,
change the composition of your mission so that it is host nation forces
that are combating the extremist elements with our assistance
rather than our forces in the lead.
That of course has enabled us in Iraq, for example, to draw down
from 165,000 US forces
with a substantial component of Coalition forces in addition to that
down to now somewhere around 96,000 US forces headed to 50,000 by the end of August.
Again, these efforts are not, as I've mentioned to you before,
efforts where you take the hill, plant the flag, and go home to a victory parade.
These are efforts that require sustained substantial commitment.
That's what we have tried to convey to our chain of command
and indeed to the American people.
You're not going to put a stake through the heart
of transnational extremism any time soon.
Rather what it takes is a comprehensive whole of governments--
all of our partners working against this
and frankly, the most effective partners in this are Islamic countries
who more than share the concern that we have about the extremist elements
in among some of their citizenry.
General Petraeus, there are a lot of families back home
with soldiers that are now into multiple tours.
Many of them are bona fide Iraq veterans.
They're coming to Afghanistan,
and latest reports are showing that many of them are being injured or killed in Afghanistan.
Are we making training changes to adapt to this?
Oh, absolutely. In fact, we started making those quite some time back.
But clearly the preparation of forces for Afghanistan has to be different
from that of preparation of forces for Iraq.
And it's not just the languages and the ethnic and sectarian differences;
it's the differences in terms of the human terrain,
it's the differences in the fact that one country is much more rural than the other is,
the extreme terrain that you encounter in Afghanistan,
the extremes in weather and temperature and so forth,
the much more limited infrastructure that we find in Afghanistan,
just a host of different changes that we've made in the preparation of our forces
as we focus them on Afghanistan rather than on Iraq.
And that will continue.
We are constantly trying to be a learning organization,
to be one that is adaptable and flexible,
not just in the operational area--on the battlefield, if you will--
but also on the training field so that our soldiers are indeed prepared
for what they will encounter, that we have the equipment that enables them,
which is again different.
You have good road systems in Iraq; you don't have that in Afghanistan.
We've literally had to go for the all-terrain MRAP vehicle
rather than the standard MRAP that we used in Iraq.
And that's just symptomatic of a number of different adjustments
that we have made to indeed ensure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines
are as well-prepared, as well-trained, and as well-equipped as we can possibly make them
for the mission in Afghanistan.
It's also really important, I think, as this shift in focus takes place
to remember why we are in Afghanistan,
remember why we're still there after eight years--or nine years now,
and that is that this mission is of critical importance to our country.
This is where the 9/11 attack was planned,
it's where the attackers got their initial training
before moving to Hamburg and US flight schools.
We cannot allow that country to again become a sanctuary or a safe haven
for transnational extremists so they can do to us again what they did to us on 9/11.
General Petraeus, thank you for your time.
Great to be with you, Gail. Thanks.