John Abizaid
You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation.
Yet, we believe that that's probably the vigilance of Iraqi security forces and some of our proactive measures the night before probably saved lives.
Well, the reports are correct that we're conducting very robust military operations on the Afghan side of the border in areas where we think al-Qaida is operating and Taliban remnants are.
Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.
We've got to ensure that the quality and the capability of these forces will be good enough to withstand the challenges that the insurgents and the terrorists will present to the new Iraqi government.
We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.
We had expected that there would be more car bombs used in the attacks based on the very broad intelligence tips that we had.
Undoubtedly, there are members of the former regime that are cooperating in some fashion and then there are extremists that are within Iraq that are cooperating with them.
There are a lot of them who are participating but it is a greater challenge for them than it is in any other part of the country because they are heavily intimidated by the ex-forces of Saddam Hussein.
The real target is creating enough chaos in Iraq so that an extremist government can emerge there that would be friendly and conducive to the form of ideology that bin Laden, Zawahiri and Zarqawi believe in.
So, these political activities will create friction in and of themselves, and in this environment of friction there'll be additional violence.
So the skills required of our translators, interrogators, and human intelligence operators in Iraq are enormously demanding.
Our troops will do what they need to do to include stepping in between warring factions if that's what's required.
Our forces will not be on the sidelines.
Oh, the transition concerns me because as we move towards an important political event, it's clear to me that the terrorists and insurgents will move as hard as they can to disrupt this process.
Of course to Americans the term outsiders means outside Iraq. But to an Iraqi it means someone not from this local area.
Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.
Militarily we are not in any danger of losing. We can't be defeated militarily based on what the enemy currently throws against us.
It's got the hallmark of al-Qaida and Zarqawi all over it - two independent attacks within four minutes of one another widely separated using suicide bombers.
It's clear to me now that we've got to reach out to the Arab Sunni community in particular in an effort to cause some moderate political activity to take place so they join the future of Iraq.