the military here, ed, we want our forces strategically agile and at sea, offshore balancing it s called, where they can move in places other than just iraq. iran being one of those places that is talked about right now. and this idea by the neoconservatives in particular that this has empowered iran is nonsense. look where the iranians had the most influence. right now the turks are there, the chinese are there, the indians are there. even we re there. the iraqis don t like the persians. they don t like doing business with them. they won t buy their shoddy products which the sanctions that we ve imposed on them have had a hand in causing. so the iranians are they have not got the upper hand. we gave the iranians the upper hand, strategically by taking is a saddam hussein out. we move offshore, have our combat power ready in case iran does anything and the iraqis run their own country.
our forces strategically agile and at sea, offshore balancing it s called, where they can move in places other than just iraq. iran being one of those places that is talked about right now. and this idea by the neoconservatives in particular that this has empowered iran is nonsense. look where the iranians had the most influence. right now the turks are there, the chinese are there, the indians are there. even we re there. the iraqis don t like the persians. they don t like doing business with them. they won t buy their shoddy products which the sanctions that we ve imposed on them have had a hand in causing. so the iranians are they have not got the upper hand. we gave the iranians the upper hand, strategically by taking is a saddam hussein out. we move offshore, have our combat power ready in case iran does anything and the iraqis run their own country. if you want to build nationalism in iraq, that s the way to do it. you don t stay around.
couldn t agree more with you and pat, it s just it doesn t work. it doesn t work. it s just dragging on. then we had this disastrous attack in nigeria. tragic. many people killed. it s spreading and diverted to new places. this is not a working approach. yeah. there s no con nettic solution to this. took out the number two in al qaeda. pointing that out. it s big news. it is big news. the question is this, that s great news. it s great that we got saddam hussein out. it would be great to get the taliban out. it s great if we are going to get gadhafi out. the question is, at what cost? at what cost? and what difference? what difference? a day or two after this, you have the u.n.
stand, reports of explosions near a compound where he may be hiding. and i m carol costello. a new poll predicting a tight race in 2012, whether obama versus romney, bachmann, perry or paul on this american morning. good morning to you. it is tuesday, august 23rd. this is american morning. we have a lot going on today here. this weather in the united states. that s right. politics and, of course the developments in libya. start with breaking news in the battle for libya this morning. the arabic news network al arabiya reporting explosions near the compound where moammar gadhafi is believed to be hiding, this coming as the regime is teetering on the bring of collapse. nobody has seen gadhafi since the opposition rolled into tripoli over the weekend. his son, saif al islam, made a surprise appearance after the libyan opposition claimed they captured him. he showed up at a western hotel with journalists and spoke to matthew chance and said his father is alive and
at least five times. going forward, those relationships are critical. some date back to the first persian gulf war. i spent some time with the troops in the saudi desert 20 years ago before the ground war started into kuwait to push saddam hussein out. yet secretary gates and admiral mullen are due to leave the administration in the months ahead. so it s interesting to watch diplomacy being run out of the pentagon. a lot of the officer corps in the egyptian military has been educated in the united states in military colleges and military schools. ben, how much is known about this guy? reporter: we know that he s really from the same generation of former president hosni mubarak. he s in his mid 70s. he s received training in the soviet union. he seemed to be very much an establishment man in dealing with the military.