White House Press Corps.org: Press Briefing on the State of the Union Speech 1/23/07 (Topic: Iraq)

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Press Briefing on the State of the Union Speech 1/23/07 (Topic: Iraq)
— Tuesday, January 23, 2007 —

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Q Steve, if you could talk broadly about what he's talking about the global war on terrorism and Iraq. Does he really say anything new in talking about what effect it would have in the region and the world if there was failure in Iraq? And also I know you said he wants to look forward in this, but does he again acknowledge mistakes or failures in the past? Just basically, is there anything new on Iraq and global war on terrorism and the mistakes?

MR. HADLEY: Well, I think it is. I think you'll find it's a very good statement about the consequences in the region. We've been doing a lot of outreach to members of Congress over the last two weeks. And one of the things we've heard is that Americans don't understand the connection between what is happening and the war on terror, and doesn't understand the connection between the outcome of the war on terror and security here at home. And what the President is going to do is sort of walk through those connections. And I think you'll -- I'll let you hear it from the President tonight.

Q Is he going to do the mistakes part? Is he going to talk about any failures in the past again?

MR. HADLEY: Well, he's covered a lot of the specific issues about Iraq, what our strategy was, what we've learned, particularly in terms of describing how the new Baghdad security plan differs from what we did in the past. This is an effort, really, to step back and paint a broader picture. So in some sense, he did that in the speech he gave two weeks ago Wednesday. I think it's a different speech with a different purpose tonight.

MR. BARTLETT: I think just to amplify on that just for a second, Steve, the way he will talk about the kind of -- how this war has transpired, he'll talk about where we went from 2005 to 2006. In 2005, there were a lot of advancements in the democracy agenda -- and Steve can talk more to this -- and in 2006, the enemy fought back across the fronts, whether it be in Iraq, whether it be in Lebanon, whether it be in Afghanistan and elsewhere. And it's a good way to have -- the President can use this as an opportunity to discuss the nature of the enemy we're facing, why it is -- like I said, the interconnectedness between Iraq and the other elements of extremism, whether it be Shia-Sunni, as Steve described. So there will be some difference, some new language and new context to something you've heard him talk a lot about.

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Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:23:00 PM

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