QUESTION: I know you don't want to steal the President's thunder. He's going to address the nation tonight, but for the last couple of days, we in the media have been hearing a lot about what he's going to tell us, tell the nation. Can you give us a preview of what President Bush will say tonight?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the President is going to call the nation to the great challenge that we have before us and he's going to essentially accept the recommendation of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. That is a recommendation that, in fact, we continue a course that we began in January which has surged American forces in to make it possible for security to be provided for the Iraqi population, that allows them to begin to become some of their -- overcome some of their political differences.
But the President is also noting that General Petraeus has said we can begin to bring American forces home in December. We can most likely bring more American forces home in the spring because we are having an effect on the security situation. Iraqis are more capable of dealing with this more benign security situation and perhaps most importantly, local Iraqis are stepping up in places like Anbar Province and Diyala Province to take back their streets from al-Qaeda.
QUESTION: Can you give us some specifics in the drawdown?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, our -- I think it would be best if the President does that, but the -- we will definitely be able to bring back several thousand troops in December and even more by the spring. The key here is to do it in a way that allows us to consolidate the gains that have been made over the last several months, allows us to continue to work with the Iraqis at the local level to deliver goods and services for their people and to stand up local governance, allows us to deal with the very significant Iranian-influenced militias that are causing a difficulty and, frankly, are really responsible for many of the deaths of our soldiers through these enhanced explosive devices along roadsides, and to continue to deal with the Baghdad neighborhoods.
So General Petraeus has asked to keep enough forces in Iraq to deal with those problems, but he's also said to the President that if we continue to make progress, he foresees even further American troop reductions down the line, though he wants to make another recommendation to the President later about those numbers.
QUESTION: We have heard about 30,000 U.S. troops could be coming home if there's progress. What is progress over there?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the progress is observable. The violence is down in some of these provinces, as I mentioned, like Anbar Province. They've raised large numbers of local forces that are now capable with dealing with the security situation. Al-Qaeda is still clearly dangerous. The assassination today of Sheikh Sattar, one of the founders of the Awakening movement in Anbar, which is the sheikhs that are fighting al-Qaeda, it shows that al-Qaeda is still dangerous.
But we were just in Anbar with these local leaders and they are increasingly able to provide security. Security -- the security situation is changing in the neighborhoods of Baghdad and so that is progress. We haven't seen as much political progress at the level of the national government as we would like, but these local movements and their willingness to go take on the terrorists and to provide for their people is clearly the right trend.
QUESTION: How does the United States convince Iraqis, especially Sunnis, to cooperate with us when they're getting picked off like the Sheikh was?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, these Sunnis -- the Sunni leaders are cooperating with us and they're cooperating with us because they have seen the face of al-Qaeda and they know what it's like. They know that they do not want their provinces to be taken over by people who have the most brutal and draconian views of what Islamic law ought to be like. They know that they want to -- do not want to be taken over by people who cut off the heads of some children, put those heads into an ice cooler and delivered them to their families because they were engaged in fighting al-Qaeda.
And today, when the very sad and, indeed, tragic death of the Sheikh took place, these local leaders came out to say that they are not going to be intimidated, they are not going to be deterred. They've lost a great colleague and a great leader, but there are many more of them who are going to fight al-Qaeda and prevent their province from going back to the dark days when al-Qaeda declared it the Islamic Republic of Iraq.
QUESTION: Do you think, though, that there are enough courageous people, including Sunnis like the Sheikh, who are still willing to work with the United States if they run the risk of getting killed or their children or their wives run the risk of getting assassinated?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, in fact, our military surge into the region and the fact that the President was able to put an additional 4,000 Marines and soldiers into Anbar as a result of this decision in January has helped them to have a security situation which allows them to take these very difficult circumstances. And we're not going to abandon them in places like Anbar. We're going to keep fighting with them. And we've made great progress against al-Qaeda and these networks and their leaders in the region, killing and capturing many of them. And that has permitted these brave people to emerge and they said today, and I fully believe them, that they're going to continue this fight.
QUESTION: Secretary, as you know, there are many Americans who believe that the war is not working in Iraq. I want to go back to this whole progress idea, pulling out 30,000 troops if there is progress in Iraq. Progress is?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I do believe that what the President will be clear on tonight is that we believe that the progress that we have made makes entirely possible the prospect of the return of these 30,000 American troops, that that's the progress that has already been achieved. Now we want to be sure that we can sustain that progress, but I know that people look at the fact that the Iraqi Government has not passed certain laws, that if you look, for instance, at the national oil law, yes, they haven't passed the law that is supposed to be a law on revenue distribution. But they are actually distributing the revenue to the local government. They've distributed over $200 million to Anbar, for instance.
So the government is doing those acts of governing that are making it possible for local reconciliation to take place. But I hope we don't miss the forest for the trees here. A year ago, Anbar was written off as lost. It was written off as lost to al-Qaeda, it was written off as lost to the Sunni insurgency. Now it is an area of great cooperation with American and coalition forces. Now it is an area of local control. Now it is an area in which Sunni Sheikhs are fighting, have fought back, and put their own sons, tens of thousands of them into the fight against al-Qaeda. I think that has to be considered progress.
QUESTION: We appreciate your time.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.
2007/756