Iraq: What’s Next?

Description: It all depends on Congressional appropriations.

Trancript:

Well everything really kind of depends on the budget. If Congress passes adequate appropriations for the war, for the new fiscal year beginning in October, regardless of how angry they are, regardless of how much verbiage shows up in the Congressional record or in the statute, and Petraeus has been given a reasonably free hand for another year, I think the chance of exiting with some degree of stability might be fairly good if that doesn’t happen. If the forces in the field are crippled by appropriation’s cuts, that could be very bad from the point of view of either being able to prevail over Al Qaeda in Iraq, or being able to leave any kind of a stable situation behind.

Recorded on: 7/2/2007 at The Aspen Ideas Festival