Iraq: Five Years of War (Video)

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Speaker:	Barry R. McCaffrey, General, U.S. Army (Ret.); Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, United States Military Academy
Presider:	Jane Arraf, Journalist, Former Senior Baghdad Correspondent, CNN

March 13, 2008
General Meeting: Iraq: Five Years of War

Barry McCaffrey, a retired U.S. army general and adjunct professor of international affairs at West Point, discusses past failings and future options for success in Iraq five years after the war began. McCaffrey, an early critic of the war’s initial planning, says “if you look at the totality of our experience in Iraq, it’s been a major disaster.” He says increasing costs, diminishing assets, and a rising death toll continue to jeopardize long-term stability. And yet progress has been made, the general says. While the fight is likely to drag on well into the next presidential administration, McCaffrey says the Pentagon’s recent course adjustments are reducing violence and encouraging stability.

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