“The biggest mistake we made early on was underselling how hard it would be. I think people have lost sight due to frustration, that it’s part of the overall war on terror….The president’s going forward based on an assumption that a failed state in Iraq is a mighty blow in the overall war on terror. He’s going forward based on the assumption that, if you put military reinforcement, political and economic reinforcement, you can turn it around. You’re never going to have democracy with this much violence. General Petraeus has come up with a plan that requires more troops. The goal is to surge on all fronts—militarily, politically and economically—to give the Iraqi government the capacity and the breathing space to make these hard decisions. Americans don’t want to lose in Iraq. That’s why they don’t want to cut off funding. …And all these resolutions and all this talk about what to do, if you don’t cut off funding, the Congress is getting itself in a dangerous situation Constitutionally……The Democrat Party is the dog that caught the car. What do you do now? The left is saying get out yesterday. The reason we don’t have a vote on cut off funding is because the American public understand that’s responsible. So all of these efforts to micromanage the war—I’ve been a military lawyer for 20-something years. Some of these resolutions are just nightmares for a commander. You can fight al-Qaeda, but you can’t fight people involved in sectarian violence. You can go here, and you can’t go there. The Congress cannot—there’s a reason there’s only one commander in chief. So, if you’re not willing to cut off funding, which is the Congress’ responsibility, then everything else really hampers General Petraeus. It’s really a signal to him that, “We have no faith in you.” Either stop him from going or give him the resources to do their job. Everything is else is just political theater. That’s dangerous.…All I can tell you is that we’re not going to win this war through polling, and we’re going to learn through our mistakes or we’ll lose this war…. Thank God there’s not 535 commander in chiefs, there’s only one.

…Here’s the one thing I can guarantee you, that if a failed state in Iraq occurs, the war gets bigger, not smaller. …I believe very passionately that the worst thing this country could do is have a failed state in Iraq, because it’s part of the war on terror. The war doesn’t stop the day we leave Iraq, if it fails, it gets bigger and wider, that the Shia south becomes a puppet regime for Iran—they’re the biggest winner of a failed state—that the Turks are not going to sit on the sidelines and watch Iraq degenerate into chaos and allow an independent Kurdistan. That the Sunnis are going to be slaughtered. Do you think it’s bad in Baghdad now? We leave—I talked to a citizens group on my last trip made up of Sunni, Shia and Kurds living in Baghdad. The one thing that united them was, “Please don’t leave. If you leave here, there’s going to be a bloodbath.” There are four million Sunnis; there are two million Shias in Baghdad. If this thing fails, they’re going to be slaughtered, they’re going to be pushed into Anbar Province. Sunni Arab states are not going to sit on the sideline. … We’re living for the political moment. All the polls you put up is what everybody’s focused on. I’m not focused on the polling for the moment. I’m focused on what happens to Iraq if it fails, long-term national security interests.