White House Chief of Staff Discusses Iraq War, Vacancies

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• JIM LEHRER:

  Now, a newsmaker interview with White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. I spoke with him this afternoon.

  Mr. Bolten, welcome.

  JOSHUA BOLTEN, White House Chief of Staff: Thank you.

• JIM LEHRER:

  President Bush is expecting an upbeat report from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, is that correct?

• JOSHUA BOLTEN:

  He's expecting a candid report from both of them, and I'm sure it's going to be a mixed picture, showing both progress and optimism on many key issues, especially on the security front, and disappointment and concern on other fronts, but with a suggestion of the way forward of the best way to deal with a very complicated situation in Iraq.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Now, the president was briefed on this Sunday in Iraq, right, on his trip?

• JOSHUA BOLTEN:

  He was. And he'd also spoken previously by video conference with both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. So he's been given already a good idea of what the two of them are likely to be testifying to on Monday and Tuesday.

• JIM LEHRER:

  So there's no big bracing going on among you and your colleagues at the White House, correct?

• JOSHUA BOLTEN:

  No. There's — the president has a good sense of what they're going to say. What I should emphasize, though, is that the White House has not been involved in steering what they're going to say.

  The president in those conversations was in receive mode, because he wants their report to be what it is, which is the report of a professional diplomat and a professional soldier with their best judgment about the conditions on the ground in Iraq and their recommendations of the best way forward.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Now, much has been made about the fact that the president went to Anbar province to be briefed, rather than the normal place, Baghdad, and that Anbar is being shown as the example of things that can work on the ground. Is that a correct reading of what the message was?

• JOSHUA BOLTEN:

  That is. It was a very good reason to go to Anbar, as a — to showcase some of the success that has occurred there in bottom-up reconciliation in Iraq. The president wanted to see that with his own eyes. He wanted to meet the troops who have been such an important contributor to the success there.

  He also wanted to meet the Iraqi federal officials there to encourage them along the paths that folks in Anbar have already followed and meet the Iraqi provincial leaders, some of the local sheiks, who met with him there. I wasn't at the meeting, but I know that the president and his advisers were very impressed with what they heard from the local leaders about their commitment to ensuring that they establish a responsible, safe government for their people, free of the influence of extremists, especially al-Qaida.

  And I think it was good for all across the Iraqi governmental spectrum for those leaders to be there and for the provincial leaders to be there at the same time.

• JIM LEHRER:

  But at the same time, most unimpressed with what the national leaders and the national government has done up until now, correct?

• JOSHUA BOLTEN:

  There have been disappointments, but there have been areas of progress, as well. And one of the most optimistic signs occurred just last week, which I think has been a late-breaking development in all of this. General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will be able to speak to it in detail next week.

  But last week, for the first time, the five leaders of the Iraqi government, which includes the prime minister, who is a Shia, but also the president, some of the deputy prime ministers who are Kurds and Sunnis, all five of them came together and signed a pact on a way forward to pursue some of the key elements of reconciliation that so far have not appeared and have been something of a disappointment to many people here in the United States.

  So disappointment is the right word for a lot of the areas that we had been hoping to see more progress from the Iraqi federal government, but some strong signs of progress.