Special Report Roundtable - June 18

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CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR Let's get to the bottom line here. Do you feel that we can still win in Iraq? That we can leave bond a stable, democratic government?

MAJ. GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: Chris, if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be leading the finest of young American men and women who are putting their lives on the line every day.

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HUME: That was General David Petraeus, who is, of course, the commander of U.S. and other forces in Iraq, and who was on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace yesterday for most of the program, and outlined the reasons why he thinks there is still a real chance for success in Iraq.

Some thoughts on all this now from Mort Kondracke, executive editor for "Roll Call," Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, and the syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, FOX News contributors all.

Well, folks, you heard Petraeus put his case. It probably foreshadows, to some extent, what he will tell Congress in just a couple months when a interim report is expected, and has been much heralded as a turning point. What about it?

MORT KONDRACKE, ROLL CALL: Well, the body language coming out of Iraq, not that Petraeus exactly said this, but his deputy, General Odierno, has said this, that they are going to ask for an extension, essentially, of the surge. That they will--it sounds like they will sight a lot of progress--

HUME: The surge is not scheduled to end any time soon.

KONDRACKE: Right, but General Petraeus is going to come back along with Ryan Crocker, our ambassador, and they are going to report in September. And Senator Mitch McConnell was on one of the other shows yesterday, and made it quite clear that the Republican patience its about at an end, that what they want after September is fewer troops in harm's way as we approach the 2008 election, and he is talking about reverting to the Iraq study group report, which is to say combat troops out of Iraq, back into secure bases, fewer casualties, and we fight al Qaeda, and have a training mission.

So this is another, you know, another example of the two different calendars. The military is on one calendar in Iraq, pleading for more, I think, and the Republicans back here are lining up with the Democrats now.

MARA LIASSON, NPR: Yes. I mean, I don't know if they have gone that far, but, look, I have heard from a Republican activist, he said that in the Fall you have to have the word "leaving" in whatever our Iraq strategy is, and they want Iraq to be in the rear-view mirror as they head into the next elections. I agree with Mort.

I think the question for Petraeus, and said it pretty clearly this weekend, that they are making some progress, not everything is better, but he left it as an open question whether the political progress that the United States has been demanding from the Iraqi government would be forthcoming. I think that is going to have to happen in order for them to get agreement on extending the surge.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, we heard a little bit about that over the weekend when our ambassador Crocker reported that the Iraqi government is near on an oil law which is really the key, because that's their one resource.

LIASSON: Although we have heard that before.

KRAUTHAMMER: We have heard it before, but, unless you think that Crocker is lying, it might be near. And Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, who has not been a shining example of Churchillian success so far, did say last week that he has three laws ready to go to the Parliament within a week. The oil law, the law on provincial elections, and on de- Baathification. If this is so, it is a major event.

And Petraeus is talking about the military side. I think he is immensely credible and immensely impressive. He talked earlier in that interview that we saw about having attended the two ceremonies for soldiers who had fallen under his command. This is a guy who feels the war. And he tells that that he thinks it is winnable.

And he has a strategy, it's not as if he is flailing about. They are now operating in the outer suburbs of Baghdad, they have had success in Anbar. And when you get Harry Reid, the senator of Nevada, sitting in Washington telling us that Petraeus is out of touch with what is happening in Baghdad, you have got to ask yourself, who is really out of touch?

LIASSON: Well, the other thing that Petraeus said this weekend, which raises an important question for Democrats is he talked about--Democrats often say we should just be there fighting al Qaeda, we should not be in the midst of some kind of sectarian violence.

But he made a point that al Qaeda is the Sunni insurgency, you can't separate al Qaeda from the sectarian violence there. So if the strategy of Democrats is going to be leave just enough troops to fight al Qaeda.

HUME: We're probably not talking about many fewer troops than what we have now.

LIASSON: . now, or at least not as much fewer as many democrats would think.

KONDRACKE: The problem is the Republicans, frankly. I mean, we know where the Democrats are, they wanted out right after the war started--

HUME: So they are not the problem?

KONDRACKE: No. I think that, increasingly, the pressure on Bush is going to come from his fellow Republicans. And I don't think that they are going to go start cutting off the funning, but they are going to start talking in terms of getting our troops out of combat, and talking volubly about this--

HUME: All that will be music to the ears of al Qaeda, one presumes.

KONDRACKE: I think so, I'm afraid so.

HUME: When we come back with the panel, what is ahead from Gaza and the West Bank? Is this the right time to renew the Israeli-Palestinian talks? That's next.

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CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: A fundamental choice confronts the Palestinians and all people in the Middle East, more clearly now than ever. It is a choice between violent extremism, on the one hand, and tolerance and responsibility on the other. Hamas has made its choice.

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HUME: Indeed it has, it has shot its way into power in Gaza, and now rules the place with the Palestinian Authority, the Fatah-led Palestinian authority still in control, or some semblance control, at least, in the West Bank.

A moment of truth perhaps? A moment of choice? Condoleezza Rice suggests so. Mort?

KONDRACKE: Well, I'm kind of encouraged by one thing, and that is that Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, acted with uncommon decisiveness. I mean, there was a coup against him, in effect, in Gaza, against his side with guns, and he pulled a countercoup.

I mean, he dissolved the government, basically tossed Hamas out of power over the civilian government, decided to rule the West Bank, reappointed an emergency cabinet--the most estimable cabinet that the Palestinian Authority has ever had before, headed by the former Finance Minister who is staying on as finance minister, but is a clean guy.

And it seems to me Abbas is acting as though he understands this is his last chance. There is a contest for the soul of the Palestinian people, and he has got to deliver clean government, effective government, and, hopefully, some chance of a state--

HUME: That can negotiate with Israel.

KONDRACKE: --with the Israelis pretty soon, I think.

LIASSON: Yes, even if it doesn't include Gaza. I mean, the other question for Hamas is what is going to happen in Gaza, and how are they going to run that part of the Palestinian territories?

The other thing that, of course, happened today is the embargo is going to be lifted, and the European Union and the United States are going to start sending money to the Palestinian Authority.

HUME: Now that it's cleansed of Hamas.

LIASSON: Now that it doesn't have Hamas.

Now, the Palestinian government says it is going to support Gaza with that money, it is going to pay government salaries, and it is going to have to. But--

HUME: But can it do that and--I suppose it helps Hamas in the sense that it keeps the place from starving, but--

LIASSON: But a collapse in Gaza is not going to help the Palestinian government either, and it's not going to help Israel.

KRAUTHAMMER: Look, what we have are two Palestinians, east Palestine and west Palestine. West Palestine is Hamas, it's terrorist. It's an Iranian client, a threat to Israel and to Egypt. And it has to be cut off. We will supply humanitarian aid through the U.N., but not more than that, and that is correct.

The problem is on the West Bank. Mort talks about what Abbas has done, which I think is good. But let's remember, last week he did not even order the Fatah fighters in Gaza to fight back until Thursday, when the war was over. He is a man known for his indecisiveness, it is legendary. He had no choice but to dismiss Hamas in the government now.

And, remember, he had a year between January of 2005, when he was elected, and when Hamas came in as a result of the Parliamentary elections in 2006, he had had a year and did he accomplish anything? Did he advance the peace process in any way? The answer is no.

He is a good man, but he is a very weak man in terms of the power he has, and in terms his personality. So--

HUME: Were you surprised that he acted with as much decisiveness as he seems to have acted?

KRAUTHAMMER: He had, really, no choice. He had to reform the Fatah government. He was not going to include Hamas, who had just been tossing his men off roofs in Gaza. So, there is a real split, and his guys are going around arresting Hamas people.

But what going to happen is I would predict within six months Hamas is going to start a campaign of terror, suicide attacks in the West Bank, attacking Palestinians, not Israelis, as a way to undermine Fatah. And lets see if Abbas has the stomach to actually confront Hamas which is in the West Bank.

HUME: Presumably he would be doing that with the Al Aqsa Martyrs brigade, who are not exactly a bunch of nice guys.

KRAUTHAMMER: Not exactly clean hands, yes.

KONDRACKE: Yes, look, in the last election, the 2006 election, Fatah barely beat Hamas in the West Bank. There is a contest and I--

HUME: The situation is ripe for civil war there, too.

KONDRACKE: Abbas better watch out that he doesn't get thrown off a roof.