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 White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 4/26/07 (Iraq) — Thursday, April 26, 2007 — 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 >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:27:00 AM
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