MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Reaction now from Baghdad to a new progress report on Iraq from U.S. intelligence agencies. The report says the military situation is a little better since the surge began, but the political situation is not.
ALEX CHADWICK, host:
Saleh al-Mutlaq is a member of the Iraqi Parliament. He's in the Sunni minority.
Mr. Al-Mutlaq, welcome back to DAY TO DAY. And let me read to you from the key judgments of this National Intelligence Estimate. Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively. What's your response to that?
Mr. SALEH AL-MUTLAQ (Iraqi Front for National Dialogue): Well, it was very clear to us from the beginning that these leaders, they cannot run Iraq because, simply, they are sectarians. They came for revenge. And they cannot make reconciliation in the country and they cannot run the country properly. But unfortunately, the United States administration was persistent to go for a sectarianism way to run the country. It is quite clear now to us and probably to the Americans that that was a big mistake.
CHADWICK: You're saying that the United States is responsible for putting the Iraqi government in place. Let me just note that Senator Warner, a senior Republican, came out yesterday in Washington and said that the Iraqi government has failed and that the Bush administration should send the government a message by beginning to withdraw American troops within several months. What's your response to that? What are people in Baghdad saying about that?
Mr. AL-MUTLAQ: Well, I met both Senator Warner and Senator Levin, and I told them...
CHADWICK: They were in Iraq last week.
Mr. AL-MUTLAQ: Yeah. I told them that this government will not work, and that as the United States is going to go on the same policy and on the same strategy, there is no need for them to stay in Iraq. They should leave. Unless the United States would clean up the mess in the ministry of interior and the ministry of defense and bring the army, which was trained for years and capable of controlling the situation in Iraq, the presence of the United States in Iraq is only going to make more damage.
But let me add something here, that if they withdraw just like that, without correcting their mistakes, then there will be also a mess in Iraq. Either there should be an election in a very near time, or the United States should appoint a transitional government which brings peace and stability and makes the order of law.
CHADWICK: Mr. al-Mutlaq, I understand that the situation in Iraq is very, very difficult for everyone. But Americans listening to this conversation might say to you, look, we're trying to figure out what to do here and how to get Iraq to fix the problems of Iraq, not America. The U.S. troops, you know, they're going to leave at some point. It's up to Iraqis to fix this, not for Americans to impose a solution.
Mr. AL-MUTLAQ: It's true, but I would like talk to the American people through your radio. We Iraqis are not responsible for what happened. It is the United States who made this mess in Iraq. We were a stable country. Also, we were being run by a dictatorship government, but it was stable. Now we don't have real democracy and we don't have stability. The United States is the one who demolished the Iraqi army and who brought those people who are not capable of running the country and put themselves in the governing council and then they build up their power through the money, which was stolen from the Iraqis, and also they made their militias. And it was by the supervision of the United States. So it is the United States' now responsibility to get rid of these mistakes, to correct them. Otherwise, believe me, Iraq will go in a mess for a long time.
CHADWICK: Saleh al-Mutlaq is a member of Iraq's parliament, speaking with us from Baghdad.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, thank you for being with us again.
Mr. AL-MUTLAQ: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
