George Casey
George Casey
battalions concerned good level progress year
A year from now, if there are not more battalions at level one I will be concerned. Right now, I am not. I am concerned about level two and we are making very good progress there,
caused change division situation
And there's division there ... and that caused the situation to change a little bit,
cycle heard involved planning positive
They were involved in about a monthlong planning cycle with us. And they were well-integrated with us. ... I've heard nothing but positive things about how they performed,
good open price
I think we'll open up with a good price. What's a good price I don't know.
forceful senator
I would not say necessarily as forceful as Senator Levin just put it,
amount degrees ice judging laid looks
It got down to about 20 degrees by 4 a.m., but judging by the amount of ice we laid down, it looks like we got through okay. But it was a very long night.
among constitution entirely looked national perception
I think that's entirely possible, senator, ... I mean, as we've looked at this, we've looked for the constitution to be a national compact, and the perception now is that it's not, particularly among the Sunni.
afraid armed committed forces iraqis members people tough understand
It is important for the American people to understand that we should not be afraid of this fight, ... This is a tough fight. Their armed forces members are committed to this. The Iraqis are committed to this.
coalition element forces iraqi key presence reducing remains security transition ultimately visibility
reducing the visibility and ultimately the presence of coalition forces as we transition to Iraqi security self-reliance remains a key element of our counter-insurgency strategy.
change involved variables
Things change in a battalion. We're making assessments on leadership, on training. There are a lot of variables that are involved here, senator,
forces iraqi security
The development of the Iraqi security forces is very much on track,
attentive casey concerned general obviously troops
And it's obviously something that one has to be attentive to. It's obviously something that General Casey and his troops are attentive to and have to be concerned about,
attacks generate increased insurgency last level seen
The level of attacks they've been able to generate has not increased substantially here over what we've seen in the last year, ... This insurgency is not progressing.
against fighters foreign iraqis seeing stand support
The Iraqis are seeing that they need to take a stand against the foreign fighters and the Iraqis that support them so they can get on with their future,