Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CNN
January 10, 2008 Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: Good evening, everybody. Tens of thousands of our troops and Iraqi troops are sweeping tonight through insurgent controlled areas of Iraq. The offensive comes exactly one year after President Bush announced plans to send five additional combat brigades to Iraq, the so-called surge strategy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates today said the job is not finished, there is more to do and one day after six of our troops were killed in a bomb explosion in northern Iraq, Secretary Gates warned there will be higher casualties. Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon. She has dramatic new video of this offensive -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Lou, any way you cut it, major combat operations are under way once again in Iraq and a lot of questions about what is going on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: These are the first pictures of punishing U.S. bombing runs on the southern outskirts of Baghdad near the town of Arab Jabour. U.S. war planes dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs in just 10 minutes on insurgent targets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
(SOUNDS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
STARR: Nearby, soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division were in a fierce firefight. It is part of a massive military offensive to clear out what the U.S. hopes are some of the last al Qaeda strongholds. Thousands of U.S. troops are involved, many in Diyala province. It was exactly one year ago when President Bush announced the troop surge that sent 30,000 additional forces into Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The new strategy I outline tonight will change America's course in Iraq.
STARR: The surge was supposed to improve security and buy time for the Iraqi government to get its act together. So why a year later are there still al Qaeda strongholds, especially deep in northern Iraq and south of Baghdad?
DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES: General Petraeus anticipated this in the sense that they would move, and the key is to do in these provinces and where this offensive is underway what he has accomplished elsewhere, and that is to clear and then hold.
STARR: But it's been tough going. In Diyala, six U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded Wednesday, when a booby-trapped house exploded. More heavy casualties are likely but Gates is hoping this offensive will turn a corner against al Qaeda.
GATES: Frankly, after these places, there's not much else -- not many places they can go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: But Lou, there aren't any U.S. military commanders just yet ready to declare light at the end of the tunnel -- Lou.
DOBBS: At the same time, it has undeniably been a strategy and we have been extremely critical on this broadcast of the conduct of this war. But there is no question that this strategy over the course of the past four months has been successful, correct?
STARR: Oh, I think by any measure in terms of combat operations, most certainly. The really unexpected thing for the U.S. military was the extent to which security would really bubble up from local towns and villages and tribal leaders that perhaps one of the most unexpected benefits of the surge -- Lou.
DOBBS: Barbara, thank you, Barbara Starr reporting tonight from the Pentagon.
January 10, 2008 Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: Good evening, everybody. Tens of thousands of our troops and Iraqi troops are sweeping tonight through insurgent controlled areas of Iraq. The offensive comes exactly one year after President Bush announced plans to send five additional combat brigades to Iraq, the so-called surge strategy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates today said the job is not finished, there is more to do and one day after six of our troops were killed in a bomb explosion in northern Iraq, Secretary Gates warned there will be higher casualties. Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon. She has dramatic new video of this offensive -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Lou, any way you cut it, major combat operations are under way once again in Iraq and a lot of questions about what is going on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: These are the first pictures of punishing U.S. bombing runs on the southern outskirts of Baghdad near the town of Arab Jabour. U.S. war planes dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs in just 10 minutes on insurgent targets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
(SOUNDS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
STARR: Nearby, soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division were in a fierce firefight. It is part of a massive military offensive to clear out what the U.S. hopes are some of the last al Qaeda strongholds. Thousands of U.S. troops are involved, many in Diyala province. It was exactly one year ago when President Bush announced the troop surge that sent 30,000 additional forces into Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The new strategy I outline tonight will change America's course in Iraq.
STARR: The surge was supposed to improve security and buy time for the Iraqi government to get its act together. So why a year later are there still al Qaeda strongholds, especially deep in northern Iraq and south of Baghdad?
DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES: General Petraeus anticipated this in the sense that they would move, and the key is to do in these provinces and where this offensive is underway what he has accomplished elsewhere, and that is to clear and then hold.
STARR: But it's been tough going. In Diyala, six U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded Wednesday, when a booby-trapped house exploded. More heavy casualties are likely but Gates is hoping this offensive will turn a corner against al Qaeda.
GATES: Frankly, after these places, there's not much else -- not many places they can go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: But Lou, there aren't any U.S. military commanders just yet ready to declare light at the end of the tunnel -- Lou.
DOBBS: At the same time, it has undeniably been a strategy and we have been extremely critical on this broadcast of the conduct of this war. But there is no question that this strategy over the course of the past four months has been successful, correct?
STARR: Oh, I think by any measure in terms of combat operations, most certainly. The really unexpected thing for the U.S. military was the extent to which security would really bubble up from local towns and villages and tribal leaders that perhaps one of the most unexpected benefits of the surge -- Lou.
DOBBS: Barbara, thank you, Barbara Starr reporting tonight from the Pentagon.