I actually left optimistic. I had. I felt like we'd make. Maybe this is the common problem that perpetuated it. 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, 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. (18:07–18:16)
CLAIM
Asserts that significant local progress was made in Iraq in terms of security and governance.
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.
