Iraqis Quotations | Page 2

find Iraqis who can assist in providing police support in those cities and various types of stabilizing and security assistance.

Faced with the collapse of Iraq into something like Lebanon - or worse, Somalia - the Bush administration opted for a new counterinsurgency strategy. Violence was reduced because, for the first time since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Iraqis felt that there was a force capable of dominating the situation and ensuring basic order.

The good news from the U.S. military survey of focus groups is that Iraqis do accept the Nuremberg principles. They understand that sectarian violence and the other postwar horrors are contained within the supreme international crime committed by the invaders.

Training involved invading a mock Iraqi village. I was running through searching for weapons and I shot (with blanks) two Iraqis who had guns. I realized that the training takes over, but what happens when your humanity comes back?

You cannot succeed in this effort if you're not willing to recognize the enormous contribution the Iraqis are increasingly making to their own future.

you cannot expect the Iraqis to think that they have their own government if we're appointing their people. We need an election.

We were the only westerners in our neighbourhood, ... Our goal was to cover the realities of the occupation on the ground and we had not got the same security concerns as, say, CNN. Maybe at some levels they don't trust Iraqis with their security. There's a part in the book where I'm trying to take CNN to a refugee camp, and they wouldn't go. And so no one sees Falluja refugees.

We cannot forget the 10 million Iraqis who voted in October 2005 for the constitutional referendum and last month 12 million elected Iraq's first four year government, this tells me the Iraqis want democracy and a better way of life.

Though it will certainly not be easy, we do believe that it shall be possible to identify, by the end of May, a group of people respected and acceptable to Iraqis across the country, to form this caretaker government.

What we are doing, with the United Nations ' full support, is helping that full majority of Iraqis build what we have here -- a democratic, stable, prosperous and peaceful society.

We were planning to do it, and he said that was a good idea, and I think we will move forward to cooperate with him, ... He is in favor of giving the Iraqis authority as quickly as it can be done.

We missed a clear signal that transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis will be accelerated, ... The role of the United Nations, in particular of the secretary-general, could have been strengthened even more.

(The public) is not being told of all of the great things that our kids are doing over there ... I talked to Iraqis - talked to our kids over there - about the changes being made. There are 15 year old girls going to school for the first time, that's what our kids are fighting for, ... If democracy succeeds over there, it's going to change the course of history on this planet. (The troops) are doing all they can to make that happen.

You have to realize how fatalistic the people have become, ... The effect is cumulative. It's another crisis in the daily lives of Iraqis that will add to the malaise happening in the country.

This throws a monkey wrench in the administration's strategy of standing down (U.S. troops) as the Iraqis stand up, because it suggests that many Iraqis are standing up to fight other Iraqis.

We think that with the transition, eventually the Iraqis will be taking more of the people we've detained as the Iraqis put them into the legal system, and they need to have a greater capacity there.

view the rise of democracy in Iraq as a powerful threat to their ambitions. In this, they are correct. They believe their acts against our coalition, against international aid workers and against innocent Iraqis will make us recoil and retreat. In this they are mistaken.

Brave Iraqi soldiers and civilians risked their lives to participate in their fledgling democracy, in some ways not unlike brave Americans did more than 200 years ago. Iraqis went to the polls despite the warning of violence and they continued to vote even when violence occurred.

Even though there are many hardships, the fact that Iraqis continue to vote in large numbers and are preparing for free and fair elections is indeed inspirational,

Either the new Iraqi government with U.S. backing starts to fix Iraq's problems or continued failures will propel Iraqis in to the arms of the militias, likely generating a full-blown civil war.

Because it has become such a dangerous place, news organizations do rely on Iraqi staffers. These journalists get caught up in their own country's sectarian violence. Their presence has also created potential conflicts with the U.S. military, which has had a difficult and slow time accepting that Iraqis have been professional and objective journalists.

Everybody understands the Sunnis need to be part of this process going forward and need to be part of this government. How that will sort out and get down is obviously for the Iraqis to decide.

As they see their own government providing a way ahead that all of their citizens can understand as progress for their country, that those who are fighting against the government right now who are Iraqis will more and more lay down their arms and decide to become part of the future of Iraq and not the past.

Curveball really provided 98 percent of the assessment as to whether or not the Iraqis had a biological weapon,

An Iraq at peace with its neighbors, an ally in the war on terror, with a representative government that respects the human rights of all Iraqis and security forces sufficient to maintain domestic order and deny safe haven to terrorists.

First of all, elections were held in Iraq and 8.5 million Iraqis participated in them.

The United States encouraged Iraqis to rise up after Saddam Hussein's army was driven out of Kuwait. Washington assumed Saddam was weak after losing the 1991 Gulf War. Iraqis rose up, but Saddam's troops killed thousands - Iraqis say tens of thousands - in a counter-offensive.

I share the concerns of many Iraqis about the lack of consensus on the constitution,

I've been entirely opposed to it since Day one. The next practical thing to do is to get out, and since I don't imagine we're going to clean up after us, the Iraqis are going to have to clean up all the junk we leave behind.

These women are not politicians, but ordinary Iraqis who are desperate to see an end to the violence and are taking great personal risk to come to the US. It's a rare opportunity to hear from Iraqis themselves, and we hope that US officials will listen.

The security forces are perceived by many Iraqis as being under the influence of these militias. There seems to be empirical evidence that especially the Interior Ministry have been infiltrated by these forces, no doubt.

The sooner we make security the top agenda item, and utilize sufficient American and international resources to achieve it, the faster we can help Iraqis improve their lives and bring home our troops.

the sooner it is done, the fewer Iraqis that will be killed, the fewer Americans or coalition forces that will be killed.

The terrorists and foreign fighters that he recruits, trains and equips carry out more than 90 percent of the insidious suicide attacks against the men, women and children of Iraq -- attacks that have killed or injured thousands of Iraqis in the last year alone.

Sophisticated systems such as the SAM-6 missile can be moved very easily. The Iraqis do that, and the Serbs do it as well.

Saddam Hussein committed many crimes, the most important of which are the mass graves that hold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis including children, women, the elderly and men who were buried without a trial.

Questions about my record are clearly an attempt to distract attention from the real issue, which is that our brave men and women in uniform are dying and being injured every day in the middle of a civil war that can be resolved only by the Iraqis themselves.

Progress is running far behind Iraqi expectations in virtually every area. In their view, most Iraqis are not seeing 'amazing progress.' All too many of them live in constant danger, with less electricity in many areas than under Saddam Hussein.

People are unhappy about it, Republicans and Democrats. They all realize that the Iraqis aren't going to do any fighting until we decide that they're going to take over. As soon as the elections are over and the constitution is ratified, you're going to find American forces drawn down. The public's against it. The military's overextended. There's no place else to go.

Opinions among Iraqis differed widely, as they still do, about the reasons for the foreign military presence in their country,

Of course we must make sure that there is a proper and independent and fair process. But I am quite sure that the Iraqis have the capability of doing that,

The one thing everyone's agreed upon for sure is that we simply have to keep increasing the number of Iraqis that are involved in the security side,

One day I am at home, watching dramatic images of Iraqi Yazidis fleeing for their lives being aired nonstop on 24-hour news channels. Days later, I am there, staring at tens of thousands of displaced Iraqis and feeling a 35-millimeter frame cannot capture the scope of devastation and heartbreak before me.

The more Iraqis feel that they are in charge of their own country, the more rapidly we'll get away from this idea that we're there as an occupation force. We came as liberators. That's our mission.

The more classes graduate... the more Iraqis can depend on themselves

The more and more we can train Iraqis to fight these insurgents themselves, the sooner we will be able to bring our troops home.

Despite three rounds of Iraqi elections, 845 brave young Americans died in Iraq in 2005, only 3 fewer than the 848 lost in 2004. Also 30,000 to 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed in the wake of the U.S. invasion. George Bush and Dick Cheney are personally responsible for each of those deaths, because they deliberately lied to Congress and the American people to start this disastrous and never-ending war.

And the answer is it is, but it's also a difficult road to go on. There are peaks and valleys that you go through, but overall, the trend is good. We're certainly confident. And the most important thing we're confident about is that the Iraqis want to do this. They want to take the fight. They will take the fight.

A quick pullout would leave a vacuum that Iran would be all too happy to fill. The Iraqis who are supporting a democratic government would be completely demoralized. It could lead to a very quick unraveling of national cohesion.

As far as the U.N. is concerned, the constitution itself will have to be judged by the Iraqis on the 15th of October during the referendum. It should come as no surprise that within the U.N. staff who deal with Iraq there would be papers analyzing latest developments in that country, but it's an internal analysis.

As far as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position they had, ... I don't think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq.

As long as there is no government, Iraqis tend to view the situation as one of occupation.

As long as we are doing the job, the Iraqis are going to say, 'The Americans are here,' ... You need to give them the incentive to do it.

A large majority of Americans believe that the U.N., not the U.S., should take the lead in working with Iraqis to transfer authentic sovereignty as well as in economic reconstruction and maintaining civic order.

You may say that the Iraqis are overcompensating for Saddam's deceptive pro-Arab slogans. This does not justify what is happening, but might explain it. Saddam used to give the Arabs privileges in Iraq while depriving the Iraqis of similar privileges. There is a reaction in the street and it should be contained. We cannot turn our backs on our Arab milieu.

This is a new experience for the new Iraq, ... Iraqis now are watching the biggest man, Saddam, being tried in an open trial.

This is a critical moment for Iraq. We call on all Iraqis to unite against terror and violence. Coming together in unity to condemn this barbaric act, and working for Iraq's salvation will be the right response. This desperate and despicable act shows that terrorists stop at nothing and care for nothing.

Although it is being fought at low intensity for now, it could easily escalate if Americans and Iraqis make the wrong choices.

Americans took 13 years to draft their constitution and here, we're asking the Iraqis to do it in a short period of time,

A lot of these people will have come from a background where they follow a particular ideology or particular leader, and I think that their foremost loyalty will have always been to their own particular group. It will be very difficult for all Iraqis to get the idea that this army is their army.

There were polling places in places like Houston, Detroit and other cities...to give Iraqis in the United States the chance to vote in person, not by mail, not by Internet, not by any form of electronic or distant communications. The failure of the state, in this regard, to establish satellite voting outside of Louisiana makes no sense and invites problems, confusion and perhaps even more than that.

As we move forward, we hope we will be able to work with the Iraqis and the coalition to find a mechanism for establishing a caretaker or an interim government until such time elections are organized,

Allowing the U.N. into Iraq will demonstrate to the Iraqis that the international community as a whole is committed to bringing stability and safety to their country.

A big, bipartisan vote sends a message to the Iraqis and the White House. It's very, very significant.

It's against the rule of Islam, against the rule of religion, against the rule of any humanitarian attitude to spoil the festive day for the Iraqis in such a bloody action. This will make the situation worse. I call on the American people to urge their government to find a civilized attitude. I don't think this fits with the reputation that the Americans have.

It's a fresh reminder of just how dangerous it is for all journalists. Whether they are Iraqis or foreign, independent or embedded, the dangers do not discriminate.

It's trying to walk that very fine line between being seen as an occupier, and being effective and winning this war and helping the Iraqis stand up on their feet and take the fight to the enemy.

For a while, you hoped the thing would turn, you know? That one of the operations in one of those towns over there would set things straight -- or, especially, those elections. Those Iraqis showed up against guns to vote. I kept hoping something like that would change things around.

the number of Iraqis prepared to take on the insurgency is somewhere between 4,000 and 18,000.

It's made me aware of the culture of kidnapping here. Since our guys were abducted, there have been over 350 reported kidnappings in Iraq - that's internationals and Iraqis both - and that's just reported.

It's because of you that Iraqis are experiencing freedom for the first time. And once they taste that freedom they won't want to let it go.

The atrocities are ripping apart families of not only Iraqis but Americans as well.

No Iraqis Left Me on a Roof to Die

The U.S. and Iraq will work together next year to shift Iraqi resources from unproductive subsidies to productive uses that enable Iraqis to earn livelihoods.

They attacked Iraqi security forces, trying to keep people from signing up to defend their country. ... We have more recruits than we can actually, than the Iraqis can handle, ... Face the Nation.

They will do their best until next week to increase attacks ... to scare Iraqis not to participate,

Slaying terrorism, and the extremist nationalism and perversion of religion that breeds it, will require our greatest effort, both as Iraqis and as new members of the alliance of democracies.

The issue is not the acceptance, but the performance on the ground, ... So let the inspectors go in, and I urge the Iraqis to cooperate with them and to perform, and I think that is the real test we are waiting for.

Their example is an inspiration to all who share the universal values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, ... This is a document of which the Iraqis and the rest of the world can be proud.

I hope the Iraqis understand that their isolation could be much worse than it is today.

I know personally my gung-ho support for this war is pretty much gone. We are nowhere near being able to hand the keys over to the Iraqis and saying, 'Here, you drive.' ... I didn't think we would be here three years later with no end in sight. I'm somewhat disappointed in that.

I have no doubt that, provided we can keep the training and the security sector reform going, and providing some of the reconstruction will continue at the present rate, we'll reach a point where we can see an Iraq that is self-governing, providing its own security and has a democracy of the form that the Iraqis want,

I'm not watching dates, I'm watching trained Iraqis. Five-thousand Iraqis trained -- 5,000 Americans come home.

If the U.S. occupies Iraq, it will have the best opportunity in the short term to provide both law and order, prevent retribution and begin the processes by which Iraqis inside and outside can refashion their political system and move toward democratic reforms.

If we used that fortress mentality and created a sense of security and security zones, and wait for the insurgents to come to us and don't go after them . . . and protect the people inside that zone, allow them to feel more comfortable and more confident and allow them to get an economy going . . . then at that point Iraqis are going to be more willing to assume the front lines of that fortress.

In some countries, even rain can cause abstentions. But the Iraqis have shown they can vote under gunfire and under attack,

In those locations, where that type of support could be located -- and then a unilateral action would occur by Iraqis or the United States government -- that would seriously escalate our problems with the Syrian government.

In the Security Council, there is understanding that if Hans Blix ... were to be approached by the Iraqis that they need a little extra time for the civilian activities, the Security Council might give them a little bit extra time,

In terms of providing fundamental rights that are protected, we feel confident that this will be a document that Iraqis will be proud of and the world and America will be impressed with and proud of also.

In addition to a timeline, I have proposed that U.S. troops be removed from front line combat positions in Iraqi cities and towns, turning over daily security patrols, interactions with citizens, and any offensive security actions to the Iraqis themselves.

It helps these guys to learn how to be less confrontational, ... It's about getting them to interact with the Iraqis in a positive way -- helping them, bringing gifts -- rather than just kicking in doors and searching their houses.

Iraqis will vote 'yes' to the new constitution because they know if necessary they can amend some of its articles in the future, ... Terrorists will meet their final defeat in their final battle against the people of Iraq.

Iraqis in the street are saying that the Shiite-dominated government planned it that way. The elections gave people hope for an improved life, but immediately after the vote, the quality of life declined.

Iraqis are demanding a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, and most believe that the U.S. has no plans to leave even if the new government asks them to. This appears to be leading some to even support attacks on U.S.-led troops, even though many feel they also continue to need the presence of U.S. troops awhile longer.

Iraqis are being targeted at an unprecedented rate. Wary of the ability of police and soldiers to provide protection, civilians are attempting to provide their own security, relying on neighbors and family or hiring armed guards.

Iraqis are beginning to feel frustrated, ... The court should be more active. Saddam was captured two years ago and we feel that the sentence he will get will be reduced ... The weakness of this court might affect the verdicts and this is worrying us.

Iraqis and Americans share a common bond and a common purpose. It is a cause worth fighting for.

Clearly the deadline is not working as there are still such big issues outstanding and putting pressure on them to meet the timetable is probably causing more division among the Iraqis than consensus.

By the last few sessions ... I didn't even speak, because the Iraqis that I worked with had already taken over the program.

But I am feeling as Iraqi, and my duty is to work as an Iraqi for all Iraqis regardless of their nationalities.