Secretary of State Rice Places Conditions on Iran, Syria for Talks

MARGARET WARNER:

President Bush and the new defense secretary, Bob Gates, have made it quite clear in the last couple days that they're giving very serious thought to increasing the number of troops in Iraq. Do you support that, as secretary of state?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE:

Well, the president is examining the options that will help us be successful in this new phase, a phase that really began after the bombing of the Samarra Golden Mosque, with a rise of sectarian violence, a government in Iraq that's determined to take more responsibility for its security.

And so the president's looking at his options. And I'm going to look at them with him. And, of course, we'll give him advice. But my view is that we need to do what needs to be done in order to win.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, yesterday, when the president was asked about reports that some of his own commanders have real doubts about the wisdom of sending additional troops, for the first time he declined to say that he would follow their recommendation. That's always been his mantra in the past, that they make that decision. What has changed?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE:

Well, I think the president is waiting not to hear reports of what commanders may be saying, or rumors about what commanders may be saying, or even the voices of a commander here or a commander there, but rather to get a systematic look at what his options are, at what the people on the ground, the commanders, think is going to help support this Iraqi government in getting control of the violence in Baghdad. And he'll make a decision at that point.

MARGARET WARNER:

So you mean he doesn't feel he yet has the full assessment from his commanders?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE:

I know that he does not think that he has the full assessment. He asked Secretary Gates to go to Iraq. He's there helping to make that assessment. He will come back; he will report to the president.

The president has been listening to advice from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was actually in the tank — the chairman's conference room, so to speak — to speak with all of these commanders.

But when Secretary Gates gets back, I'm sure he will get a recommendation on what needs to be done, and then he can make the assessment. But, no, he has not had yet a full recommendation, because the secretary of defense needed a chance to review the situation himself.

MARGARET WARNER:

The president did say yesterday that he wouldn't send more troops unless they had a specific mission that they could perform. Can you give us an idea of what kind of mission additional troops could perform that the U.S. cannot do right now?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE:

Well, I think it's appropriate for the president to have a chance to listen to the secretary of defense, both in terms of mission and what capabilities need to be put against that mission. That's what he's assessing right now.

We know a couple of things. We know that the Iraqi forces are not yet capable on their own of dealing with the security challenge that they have and that they're going to need help.

We know that they are trying to deal with a situation in Baghdad. Much of the violence is in a 35-mile radius of Baghdad.

We know that they're dealing with a problem of sectarian violence, but there's also a continuing effort against al-Qaida forces in some parts of the country.

And so those are the various security challenges that the United States, the coalition, and the Iraqis face. How those missions will be defined to address those security challenges, what forces will then be needed to address those missions, I think that's what the president's going to be examining over the next period of time.