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Press Briefing by Tony Snow 12/05/06 (Topic: Iraq)
— Tuesday, December 05, 2006 — Q Tony, do you think it's demoralizing for the man who, if confirmed, will be the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon to say to troops out in the field who hear this that America is not winning the war? MR. SNOW: No, because, again, I'd ask you to do something that would be fair to the troops, which is to look at the full testimony. Q He was asked point-blank twice by two U.S. senators -- he was asked by Senator Levin -- MR. SNOW: I understand that -- Q He was asked the question, is America winning the war? He answer was, "No, sir." He was asked by another Senator, he was asked by John McCain, do you agree with that statement that you made earlier? His answer was, yes. It's point-blank. It's yes or no. He said, no -- MR. SNOW: And then he was also -- he was also -- Q My question is, do you think it's demoralizing to the troops out in the field to hear that from the man -- MR. SNOW: What I think is demoralizing is a constant effort to try to portray this as a losing mission. You know what you ought to do? You ought to talk to some of the troops when they come back. Give them a call. I think you'll find that they are committed to the mission, and furthermore, you will find that Bob Gates, in his testimony today, did nothing to give the indication that he lacks confidence in either the mission or the people conducting it. Q But troops haven't heard their Secretary of Defense, or the man who will become Secretary of Defense, ever say, we are losing the war. MR. SNOW: He also said we're not winning the war. And then he proceeded to talk about what it takes. Ask yourself again -- you want to know if it's demoralizing? Ask them. I think what they -- you know what's interesting, because what comes back a lot of times is they say, we're tired of getting press reports that have a constant failure narrative and never talk about what we're achieving in the field. We're committed to it and we know that we have to win. There's a sense of determination, mission and morale on the part of U.S. troops, that if you spent any time with them -- and I presume you have -- you will know that it's very impressive, and it's inspiring for those of us who have had the opportunity to be with them. And that's not going to go away. What they also have in Bob Gates is somebody who is going to give them everything they need. You also had conversations today about what you do to provide necessary support for the troops, and he was absolutely unstinting in his determination to do whatever it takes to get them what they need to get the mission done, and part of that mission, of course, is training up Iraqis so Americans can come home. Move out of combat missions, get into the training business and eventually have an Iraq that can defend, sustain and govern itself. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Iraq
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 9:55 PM
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