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White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 4/26/07 (Iraq)
— Thursday, April 26, 2007 — Q Dana, why isn't it working? I mean, General Petraeus talks about -- the security situation is obvious. But what has to happen here is for the political track to kick in. It hasn't. How do you expect the American people to have patience with Maliki again? This is where we were last year. MS. PERINO: Well, I think if you listen to David Petraeus, it's not exactly where we were last year, and that he has said the sectarian violence is down by a third. Q But Maliki has not made that much progress. MS. PERINO: There has been some progress. And granted -- and President -- we recognize that there are many issues, like those three that I just mentioned -- the de-Baathification law, and the oil law, and the provisional regional elections -- provincial elections -- has not moved forward fully, it's not finalized. But there has been progress and steps forward. Q But isn't that the key to all of this? MS. PERINO: It is key. It is absolutely key. But I think that everyone should keep in mind, we have a fully functioning democracy that's been in place for 200 years. Our Congress, it took them five years to pass one energy bill. Q The President told the American people and addressed Maliki in January that the time for this to happen, this political progress, was now. What does that mean? MS. PERINO: And I think that they are starting to make some progress. The oil law has now -- Q How long is now? MS. PERINO: I'm sorry? Q How long is "now"? What does "now" mean? What's the President -- MS. PERINO: The President has said -- well, I think the way that I would look at it is that the President has said, we're going to try the surge to try the -- to quell the violence there in Baghdad so that the government can have a little bit more time. And as I've just told you, General Petraeus said they're just about two months into the surge, and they don't have -- he doesn't have all the troops there that he wants, and it's going to take a while. And as I said yesterday, General Petraeus will provide an assessment towards the fall, and that's, I think, when -- I think that's how I would look at the time frame
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:27 AM
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