Jim Lehrer speaks with President Obama

President Barack Hussein Obama (own it! own it!) spoke with Jim Lehrer yesterday, mostly covering military-related topics. 

On America's challenge in the region as a whole:

Well, my assessment is that we took our eye off the ball. I mean Iraq was an, obviously, enormous diversion of resources and attention. Now, we've had a long debate about the wisdom of having gone into Iraq in the first place, I don't want to relitigate that. But just objectively, there's no doubt that had we stayed more focused on Afghanistan and the problems there, and had we thought through more effectively Pakistan and its role in this whole process of dealing with extremists, that we would probably be further along now than we are, but, you know, that's history.

On the US military's performance in Iraq:

Well, I think what we can say unequivocally is that our military succeeded in every mission that was given to them. They consistently performed above and beyond expectations under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. I don't think that we can rightly say that the strategy cooked up by our civilian leadership, with respect to either going in in the first place or how the war was managed, was a success. But I think that we can say without equivocation that our military was successful, and if we get it right over the next few months and years, that there is the strong possibility that we can leave Iraq as a stable, peaceful partner in the region.

On what has been accomplished in Iraq:

Well, you know, I don't want to look backwards. As you know, I opposed this war, I did not think it was the right decision, but I don't want to in any way diminish the enormous sacrifices that have been made by our men and women in uniform.

I think the fact that Saddam Hussein is gone is a good thing. I think the fact that Iraq has now carried out a series of successful elections with diminished violence each time, I think that's a good thing. A lot of the ultimate outcome in Iraq now is going to depend on how the political issues that have dogged Iraq for a very long time get resolved, and frankly we have not made the kind of progress over the last year to two years despite the surge - we have not made the progress that needs to be made on the hydrocarbons law, the oil law, on making determinations about central government versus provincial government power.

There are a whole host of political issues between the various factions and between Sunni, Shia and Kurd in Iraq that still have to be worked on and that's why I emphasized it in the speech. We've got to redouble our efforts when it comes to the diplomatic side if we're going to be successful.

There are other good things from the interview, but if I wrote everything out, there'd be no point in going to the PBS site now, would there? Additionally, the Los Angeles Times has a good round-up of Obama's plans for Iraq.

I did notice that President Obama tends to start each answer with "Well..." I'm sympathetic, being a Wellian myself, but I point it out so that maybe humorists can start mocking this stalling tactic instead of resorting to photoshopped White Houses features watermelon patches (yeah, I'll be milking that for years).