Gen. Casey talks about Zarqawi and the situation in Iraq
...There is much more. The last sentence in the excerpt above is a military reality that the media in large part does not comprehend. Many in the media use an unfair standard which implies that even failed enemy attacks are a failure of the US to stop them. If the media had a more realistic assessment of the situation they would recognize that the enemy in Iraq is losing badly.
...Wednesday evening Â? late afternoon, early evening Â? an operation that had been in progress for weeks came to bear fruit.
And we had been tracking one of the individuals, one Sheikh Abdul Rahman, personally for almost two or three weeks. And he was tracked to a house just about eight kilometers north of Baquba, which is just outside of Baghdad, to the north, and there were significant signals that he was there to attend a meeting with Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
One of my commanders gave me a call, told me what he was going to do, and I said go ahead, and he struck the house. He went with an air strike because of the isolated location of the house and it's a very wooded palm forest area, and only one road in and out. So there was concern that if we tried to get in there by ground, we'd be discovered and he would escape yet again.
So it was a very successful day for us. It's a great loss to the network. But I think everybody's been quite clear here that it's not going to end terrorism in Iraq. But it's certainly taken out the number one terrorist that we've been after here for three years, made it a great day for the Iraqi people and a great day for us.
WALLACE: If I may ask you, on a personal basis, you've been fighting this guy for two years over there in Iraq. What were your personal thoughts when you got the final confirmation you got him?
CASEY: It's interesting, because I wouldn't let myself believe we really got him until we got the fingerprints back. And so that was not till about 3:30, 4:00 o'clock in the morning when we got that call. But I was actually Â? frankly, I was quite happy.
WALLACE: I'm sure. Al Qaeda in Iraq has posted a message on an Internet Web site today in which they promise to continue to carry out, quote, "major attacks that will shake the enemy." Your reaction, sir.
CASEY: That's expected. They are hurt badly. And it's not just the Zarqawi operation, but we have had a series of operations in the aftermath of that based on intelligence we have gathered over the past weeks while tracking this one individual, and we have had a steady drum beat of operations against the Al Qaeda network here in Iraq since the Zarqawi operation.
I expect them to say what they said. I expect them to try to do what they said. But I think what you're going to see is an enhanced security operation here announced by the prime minister in Baghdad over the course of the coming week and a tightening of security in the Baghdad area.
So like you said, it's expected, but I think we'll be prepared for it. But again, you can't stop terrorist attacks completely.
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