TWO WARS - And War Marches On

The following is an excerpt from the transcript of PBS Newshour Political Wrap 7/3/2009

Turning points in two wars

JUDY WOODRUFF: I'm going to turn, very different subject, Iraq. We saw, Mark, I guess you could say a milestone this week, American troops continuing to pull back. Now they're saying they will only do joint missions with the Iraqis. They're lowering their presence, especially in the cities. How important is this moment, in America's presence?

MARK SHIELDS: Well, I think it's one of relief. It's not one of exultation, certainly, Judy, I mean, that we're withdrawing American troops from the major cities. It's not a -- I mean, it's still a long, unresolved war, and we don't know what the results are going to be.

And all we do know is that, you know, six-and-a-half years ago, the United States went to war against a nation that had never threatened us on the fraudulent charge that that nation had weapons of mass destruction and was going to represent a threat to the United States. It was neither a just nor a justified war.

And the country violated one of its great principles in that war, and that is that war demands equality of sacrifice. And this war, all the sacrifice has been borne by less than 1 percent of Americans, those who wear the uniform and their loved ones.

And the rest of us pay no price, bear no burden. It's been a terrible war. The one burden we've been asked to take a tax cut so that we didn't have to pay for the war.

And it just -- it really has been a sad, sad chapter. Great efforts of valor and courage and bravery on the part of the military, but it's been a tremendous cost individually and institutionally to the United States military, so...

MICHAEL GERSON: I understand those concerns, but there's a different story at work here, as well. One of the comparisons you can make is not necessarily to six-and-a-half years ago, but to two to three years ago, when it looked like the strategy of standing up Iraqi forces as we stand down was doomed. It looked like a total failure.

Barack Obama had proposed as a senator an almost immediate withdrawal in those circumstances. If we had withdrawn at that point, it would have been a failure for the American military and American will.

Now we're withdrawing two to three years later, and it's no longer a failure of American military. They adjusted well. It's no longer a failure of American will. They have a decent chance at success, and that's a genuine accomplishment when you see a turnover like this.

MARK SHIELDS: That is not why we went to war. I mean, six years ago, the president of the United States said, "Mission accomplished." Five years ago, we said Iraq is a sovereign country. We've remained there as an occupying power. Four years ago, the vice president, then Dick Cheney, said we're in the throes, the last throes of the insurgency.

I mean, the military, I think, has performed above and beyond. And I don't think anybody questions that. But the very fact that we are withdrawing was an agreement of the last administration forced upon by pressure at home by lack of enthusiasm for that war and pressure from Iraq. It actually gave Obama a legitimacy in the campaign of 2008 that the withdrawal was scheduled.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Final word?

MICHAEL GERSON: Yes, I think that's actually mistaken. This was not forced on the administration. It was the plan for the last three years that was interrupted by a major insurgency, by other things. But you had a readjustment of American strategy that was very, very successful, and that needs to be recognized in a moment like this.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tough subject, 130,000 U.S. troops are still there.