WEBVTT

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joining us now from forward operating

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base prosperity in Iraq is the fourth

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brigade combat team commander assigned

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to the third I . D . He is Colonel

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Edward Cardone Colonel . Can you hear

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me ? I can hear you fine . Well , it's

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good to have you here first of all .

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Start off by telling me what it is that

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your unit does right now in Iraq . Well ,

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right now we're providing security and

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support of the constitution . We're

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working very closely with Iraqi

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security forces to try and have a

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stable environment in order for this

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process to move forward . Well , I

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guess there are a lot of people who

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want to destabilize that environment

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right now . So you must have your hands

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full I would guess . Well , it's been

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pretty good over the last couple of

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days , especially in my area today . We

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did have a slight increase in attacks ,

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most of were ineffective . But the

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Iraqi security forces and us in support

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of them are doing a great job . I think

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uh as we go forward in this very

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complex time , how are these Iraqi

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troops ? How are they sizing up ? Do

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you have confidence in them ? I have

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confidence in a number of them . Every

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now and then you received reports that

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you have untrained troops . We have

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some troops that we've been training

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for a couple of months . They're doing

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very well . We've had some troops that

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we've trained for the entire six months

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that we're here . They're entirely on

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their own . The biggest problem in

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Iraqi Army has is that it has troubles ,

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uh equipping and supplying itself and

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its logistics and that's the area we

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need to focus on next . So that's ,

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that's a thing that will have to be

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addressed in the near future . Hey ,

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Colonel , I want to ask you folks over

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there , no doubt have been watching the

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news and seeing what's going on down in

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Crawford texas with all these protests ,

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with all due respect , because we have

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great respect for what you do on a

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daily basis and thank you for the job

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you do . How does that make the troops

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feel when they see these protests down

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in Crawford ? Um , I think most troops

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believe they're really making a

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difference here in Iraq and uh it's

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tough business here in Iraq . And many

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of them have had some of their friends

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moving and some have even been killed ,

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but most of them believe in what

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they're doing . They believe in the

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future of Iraq and they go out in the

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streets every day and do their job very

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well . Do you get a sense that perhaps

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that the terrorists know that this is

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going on and they were perhaps

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emboldened by it ? Well , clearly the

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terrorist try and use the media for

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their advantage , for example , uh , we

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we expect that as with every other

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large announcement in Iraq that the

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terrorist will try and use it as a way

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to advance their own goals . But in

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this case , uh , it will fail as every

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other , as it has every other time

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because this constitution , I think

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we'll come forth . Although it's going

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to be very complex as they try and

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merge together the complexity of Iraq

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as you watch , what's going on

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politically in Iraq and and keep close

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tabs on the fact that you're trying

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getting very close to perhaps getting a

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constitution . If they don't make this

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monday deadline , how does that impact

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what you do if they don't make the

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monday deadline ? I don't think it's

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going to have a big impact because I

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think they will have a constitution to

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vote on by october 15th . They're

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working through some very difficult

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issues and I think some of the parties

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have made some big advancements here

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over this past week , uh in some of

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these very , very tough areas , Iraq's

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very diverse country . It has an old

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history and there are a lot of

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complexities in here . And sometimes I

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think people are looking for a simple

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solution . There are no simple

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solutions in Iraq . All right , well ,

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Colonel Edward Cardone , thank you very

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much for your perspective from near

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Baghdad at camp prosperity based

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prosperity . He's with the fourth

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Brigade Combat Team Commander assigned

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to the third I D . Thank you , Colonel ,

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Thank you very much