But we made a great deal of local progress in stemming the insurgency, creating local partnerships, standing up the Iraqi police, an army, not in a fake way, but in like a meaningful way. We felt like, it felt like More troops and Petraeus's surge strategy probably could be effective in bringing down the sectarian violence. and creating the space for political compromise on the Iraqi level. You know, and this is back when I was still naive and thought nation building was something that was going to be possible in that part of the world. (18:17–18:30)
CLAIM
Asserts that an increase in troops and Petraeus's strategy could reduce sectarian violence in Iraq.
This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.
