Gilbert Gutknecht: “I was talking about the Kurds, and I think every part of the trip, in my opinion, was a highlight. I hate to say one was…”

“I was talking about the Kurds, and I think every part of the trip, in my opinion, was a highlight. I hate to say one was more important than the other. But what I had said before you came in, Congressman Hoekstra, was that I was so impressed with the Kurds and what they have done in taking responsibility for their own area, of having essentially a zero tolerance policy. I said that I think that may be the example that Maliki can use for the rest of the country. You mentioned, and this is what I think is the good story. The bad story, from my view, is that Baghdad is far less secure than I thought it was. Maybe that is my fault. Maybe I had a different impression. Maybe I had been led to believe. I am not sure, and I am not really in the blame game. But clearly Baghdad is still a very dangerous place. In fact, I think the phrase that some of them used is the road from the airport to the international zone is the most dangerous highway in the world. Maybe that is an exaggeration. But those are Americans who are serving there that used that term. My takeaway is probably somewhat different than yours, but my conclusion and my takeaway is we need to press and continue to press for the Iraqis and exactly what you are talking about, where we have some of our Special Forces embedded and working with and training Iraqis. We trained, I think the number is 262,000 Iraqis so far.…”