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Better for american security. americans are more secure because of where iraq is today. i thought the speech tonight was too focused on why we re leaving, the withdrawal, who deserves much of the credit and the troops deserve most of the credit but also general odierno, general petraeus, president bush s surge strategy which not only president obama remained committed to even though he was oppose ed opposed to it, americans learned a lot of lessons and counter insurgency the last couple of years in the war which i would say president obama was able to give the speech he did tonight because of that strategy and so i thought in that sense it was a little ungracious. larry: michael, he was underwhelmed, were you? i think it s much easier to turn the page on the iraq war if you live in washington, d.c., than if you live in baghdad. ....
Collapse, everyone was advising president bush to just cut his losses and get out. everyone. the pentagon, the cia, the congress, including republican members of congress were urging president bush to pull back. members of his father s administration were counseling this. the baker-hamilton commission. we can go down the list. and he basically took a decision that just about only he and general petraeus actually advocated for, which was this surge strategy. i think americans learned a lot from this dramatic transformation our foreign policyholders in iraq, the model for our war strategy in afghanist afghanistan. president obama has kept on president bush s defense secretary, kept on his centcom commander. the degree to which president bush s foreign policy over the last couple of years has lived on and served as the basis for this administration s war strategy is not inconsequential and some sort of acknowledgement of that is what i would suggest. larry: michael, in metretrost ....
The idea the war is over, it might be winding down for america but if you look at the last three months in iraq, nearly 1,000 iraqi civilians killed and 1,500 u.s. soldiers who died. there s a dog and pony show going on and this idea we ve left behind something in baghdad other than a very shaky government that saddam hussein liked, the two leading contenders for the prime minister job rely on their role as kind of strong men, i think we re kidding ourselves. so as president, of course he had to sort of come out and say he was proud of the troops and i m sure he is, but i think we ll be making a grave mistake if we think the iraq war is really over. larry: john, what did you think of the speech? john avalon? i thought it was a strong and decisive speech directly to the domestic audience. one of president obama s great auch sess has been that he s managed to depo larize one of the most divisive debates in the last decade. just by moving forward in iraq, by building off the success o ....
There was euphoria and jubilation with the fall of saddam hussein. that quickly was overcome as violence reached levels of brutality that shocked many in the population. they do realize that right now the responsibility does lie largely with their political leadership. they have been unable to form a new government since iraq s elections back in march. but there are concerns amongst the iraqis about this u.s. draw youp. they don t want to see the american troops here forever but at the same time they do feel that the united states does bear a certain level of responsibility to make sure the situation here is relatively and genuinely stable before america as some iraqis say turns their back on this nation, larry. larry: thank you, chris and arwa. let s go to the white house. david axelrod, senior adviser to president obama, is standing by. what was it like for him to make this speech tonight, david? well, i think it was a big moment for the country, larry, and the president felt tha ....
This now strengthens iran s hand in that region? no, i don t believe so, larry. as you know we re putting increasing pressure on iran through sanctions and by galvanizing the world in support of those sanctions. we believe that iraq the sovereignty will be respected and iraq is not going to become a satellite in any way. so we feel that it is in our interests and in the interests of the iraqis to follow through on the agreement we made with them and to begin this process by ending our combat engagement, ending our military engagement at the end of 2011 and we feel that can can be done with some confidence. larry: thanks, david, always good seeing you. thanks, larry. good to be with you. larry: david axelrod, senior adviser to president obama. a couple of iraq war veterans with very different points of view about all this are next. ....