John Kline: “I don't want to have my colleagues or Americans believe that General Jones or General Petraeus came with nothing but…”

“I don't want to have my colleagues or Americans believe that General Jones or General Petraeus came with nothing but good news. That's not the case. As we discussed earlier, the Jones commission recommended some major changes in how the police is trained and equipped and how it functions and how it's organized, that they were highly critical of the Ministry of the Interior and how they're functioning and, in many cases, failing to function. So there are clearly problems, but the Jones report, the Jones commission did not come back and say that all is lost and Iraqi security forces are all failing. In fact, that paragraph that I read quoting General Jones talking about how he was pleasantly surprised about the terrific progress of the Iraqi Army underscores that some good things are happening. I thought it was interesting in that hearing, as my colleague from Georgia no doubt remembers, during the question-and-answer period, the former Deputy Secretary John Hamre, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, was asked some questions about what we should do in Iraq, should we leave or should we leave quickly or were things too bad. And he said in part, and again I'm quoting, but we have strategic interests that are larger than just Iraq.…”