HOME | BIO | MUSIC | JOURNEYS BY DJ | STUDIO BLOG | POLITICAL BLOG | BOOKING INFO | CONTACT

Gutknecht, a strong supporter of the war since it began in March of 2003, told reporters in a telephone conference call Tuesday that American forces appear to have no operational control of much of Baghdad.

“The condition there is worse than I expected,” he said. “... I have to be perfectly candid: Baghdad is a serious problem.”

The 1st District Republican said he was deeply impressed by the professionalism of American soldiers and gained hope from the more stabile situation in the Kurdish-dominated northern region of Iraq.

But he said the next six weeks could be critical in determining whether stability can eventually come to the rest of the country, and he believes removing some American troops is necessary to send the Iraqi government a message that it can’t rely so heavily on the American military much longer.

His assessment of the problems facing Iraq and the potential value of removing some American troops comes one month after Gutknecht was widely quoted during a debate in the House about the war.

“Members, now is not the time to go wobbly,” Gutknecht said on June 15. “Let’s give victory a chance.”

While Gutknecht is still not in favor of setting deadlines for the withdrawal of all American troops, he said the situation in Iraq’s largest city has clearly deteriorated.

“Baghdad is worse today than it was three years ago,” he said[...]

Sending additional troops to Iraq would be “a terrible mistake,” Gutknecht said.

Gutknecht compared Iraq to a child learning to ride a bicycle and said America needs to be willing to let the country suffer some bruises as it attempts to take charge of its own affairs.

“I think it’s time to take off the training wheels of their bicycle,” he said.

Gutknecht was in Iraq from Saturday morning until late Sunday afternoon. His time in the country’s capital city was spent almost exclusively within the Green Zone, an area of central Baghdad that is heavily fortified and where all access is controlled by check-points.

“We learned it’s not safe to go anywhere outside of the Green Zone any part of the day,” he said.
The movements of Gutknecht and four other congressmen were carefully controlled by security forces worried about abduction attempts by insurgents, he said.

“They realize people like us are juicy targets.”

[...]Gutknecht was critical of some of the “spin” from Bush administration officials in the Pentagon and the State Department. He specifically pointed to past statements that a few hundred insurgents were causing the violence in the Iraq. Military officials say they’ve captured 10,000 even as the insurgency continues unabated.

“That’s a far cry from what we were told originally,” he said. “... All of the information we receive sometimes from the Pentagon and the State Department isn’t always true.”

The American troops, however, are performing heroically, he said.

“They’re doing a terrific job in enormously difficult circumstances.”

That doesn’t mean that more troops could win the war.

“What I think we need to do more is withdraw more Americans,” he said.

It’s up to Iraqis to fix Iraq, and they need to do it soon, according to Gutknecht.

“I think we’re at a very important tipping point, and the next six weeks is going to be critical,” he said, although he declined to elaborate on the dangers facing Iraq if the situation doesn’t improve by September. “... I don’t want to predict what will happen if things don’t get better.”

He did say that the patience of average Americans might begin to wear thin if improvements don’t come soon.
“Americans are going to start losing faith in this thing,” he said.

And I went and saw him the other day, and he said to me, "We are relieved, we are overjoyed, when our people are taken prisoner by the Americans, or when they are arrested by the Americans, because then we know they are going to survive. What usually happens is that they are taken prisoner, when they are arrested by the Iraqi police forces or Iraqi Army, we don't know that. We know that they will be tortured, we know that they will be killed in custody. but when the Americans take them we can breathe a sigh of relief."

So that's just a measure of why and how the Sunni political leaders are moving closer to the Americans. Again, this is part of that pretty remarkable shift that we are seeing... which is, after spending 3 1/2 years fighting an insurgency, which of course is still going on, there is a recognition which is occurring among the Sunnis that their bigger enemy is not the United States but the Shiites in their own country, and that they are turning to the United States to protect them. And this is a perfect example of that. They are actually insisting that American forces accompany the Shiites when they go into Sunni neighborhoods.

(Approx. 9-11 minutes into the interview)

And its not - I mean, I think the original thought was they're going to be nervous because there has been a democracy that suddenly has bloomed there. And yes, that has been one of the things that has made the leaders in that area nervous. But what really makes them nervous is all the violence and chaos there.

(Approx. 19:30-21 minutes into the interview)