Gen. Casey: ‘Iraq Will Be A Remarkable Country In A Decade’ If We Stick With Occupation

At an event this afternoon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Gen. George Casey — the former top commander in Iraq and now the Army chief of staff — declared that Iraq will be a remarkable country “in a decade or so” if we maintain the U.S. occupation.

A questioner asked, “What are the prospects in Iraq and how will this war end?” Casey responded:

Right now, there’s so much residual mistrust left over from the time under Saddam Hussein that they’re not quite ready to go forward. But they have an educated population, they have oil wells, they have water, they have some of the most fertile land I’ve ever seen. In a decade or so, this will be a remarkable country, if we stick with it.

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Casey’s comments echo those of the current top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) disclosed that on her recent visit to Iraq, Petraeus told her that the U.S. “will be in Iraq in some way for 9 or 10 years.”

The military does not have the current resources to maintain a decade-long occupation at or near the current troop levels. Recently, White House “war czar” Gen. Doug Lute suggested that there may be a need to put the military draft on the table.

The claim that Iraq will be a “remarkable country” if we stay belies how the Iraqis feel about the situation. Almost 70 percent of Iraqis say coalition forces make “the security situation worse.” Casey said today that his experience in Iraq suggests “when Iraqis want something to happen….it happens.” What the administration fails to grasp is that the Iraqis want the U.S. out.

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Transcript:

QUESTION: What are the prospects in Iraq? And how will this war end?

CASEY: Look, I have always felt that success in Iraq was achievable. It will take patience and it will take will. And the terrorists are out to undermine our will, our national will to prosecute this.

But as complex and as difficult and as confusing as you may find Iraq, it is — we can succeed there. And we will succeed there if we demonstrate patience and will.

We forget sometimes that the Iraqis lived under Saddam Hussein for three and a half decades. They’re not going back there. And I’ve watched them several times over the course of my tenure there. When they want something to happen, like in the first elections and the second elections, it happens.

And right now there’s just so much residual mistrust left over from the time under Saddam Hussein that they’re not quite ready to go forward. But they have an educated population. They have oil wealth. They have water. They have some of the most fertile land that I’ve ever seen. In a decade or so this will be a remarkable country — if we stick with it. It’s imminently doable.