Iraq War Becoming No. 1 Issue
FOREMAN (voice-over): This week marked five years since the invasion of Iraq. There were protests, of course, not very big ones, but they did have music. So, we will roll a bit for you. The president still had no doubt.</s>BUSH: The answers are clear to me. Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision.</s>FOREMAN: John McCain has made the war in Iraq a focal point of his campaign.</s>MCCAIN: I can tell you unequivocally that the situation has improved dramatically over the last year.</s>UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: One, two, three, four, we don't want your oil war.</s>FOREMAN: The Democratic candidates are criticizing the war, of course, and promising its end.</s>OBAMA: Are we safer because of this war? And that is why Senator McCain can argue, as he did last year, that we couldn't leave Iraq because violence was up, and then argue this year that we can't leave Iraq because violence is down.</s>CLINTON: I believe the best way to get the Iraqis to move to take responsibility is for us to end their blank check.</s>FOREMAN: And, finally, the vice president had his own unique point of view.</s>MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS: Let me go back to the Americans. Two- thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting. And they're looking at the value gained vs. the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.</s>RICHARD B. CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So?</s>RADDATZ: So, you don't care what the American people think?</s>CHENEY: No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.</s>FOREMAN: Who would have believed a year ago that the war in Iraq would have been anything but an albatross around the neck of the Republican candidate? But John McCain has made Iraq the keystone for his presidential campaign. And it could be what puts him over the top. Is all this due to real changes on the ground in Iraq or just smoke and mirrors? There's no one who cuts through the smoke better than CNN's Michael Ware. He joins us now from Baghdad. Michael, the Democrats continue to say, look, we need to get out as cleanly as we can. The Republicans continue to say, we need to stay until the job is successfully accomplished. Is either one possible?</s>MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very difficult question to answer, obviously. But the short answer is, no, not without some significant change. Any sense of withdrawal is just beyond the pale (ph). I mean, we always steal the magic wand that could be waved over this blood-soaked country and fix all that ails it, but I'm afraid that just doesn't exist. For right or for wrong and for whatever reason, America began this war. And one way or another for America's own foreign policy interests, and for those of this region and the Iraqi people, America must bring it to some kind of resolution. Now, should it be continued in the way that it's going now? That's a matter also of great debate. In many ways, America's never really fought this war. It's always done it with its arm tied behind its back. And with the surge or without the surge, there's still an 800-pound gorilla in the room that's yet to be addressed, and I've yet to see America establish a coherent strategy to tackle. And that's the fact that Iran all but owns this country. It certainly has greater influence. This government is much more closely aligned to Iran. And Iran strategically is using this country as a quagmire to punish America, to torture its great enemy, being the U.S. here on one of its own battlefields close to home. So none of these policies that I'm hearing espoused address the underlying true dynamics of this war now.</s>FOREMAN: One of the things the Democrats are saying is that they think the only reason there's any political progress, slow as it may be in Iraq right now, is because the Iraqis fear that a Democrat will take the White House and will pull out. Is that true?</s>WARE: Look, anyone who postulates in that fashion honestly must be dreaming. Now, this Iraqi government might know that it doesn't exactly have a handle on everything. But to be honest, I think this Iraqi government is more afraid of American money pulling out than it is of American troops. I mean, particularly if you talk to the hard liners in this government who were trained, funded, indoctrinated and continue to be supported by Iran. Let's not forget, many of the major factions of this government certainly the most powerful ones, and their paramilitary wings continue to this day to have connections to Tehran, if in fact those parties and organizations were not actually created in Tehran, while in exile from Saddam's rule. So these people, if you speak to them like the ambassador from Iran here in Baghdad, say America, get out of the way. Give us the security far less they call it. Basically give us the responsibility for security. Let us fix this. And if you want to give us the weapons we want, Iran certainly will. So the threat of a U.S. troop withdrawal is not as real as perhaps many people back home in the states would like to believe -- Tom.</s>FOREMAN: Thanks so much, Michael Ware, for that update. Religion has never been more alive in the United States. Just look at this weekend. People all across this country are praying. Praying that their teams will make it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. We will get serious about religion and its role when THIS WEEK IN POLITICS continues.</s>MUSIC: What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on a bus trying to make his way home?