Pollack: 'It's a really mixed picture' in Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In Iraq, the debate continues about the number of Iraqi casualties as a result of weekend ambushes. Tuesday also marked the 441st death of a U.S. servicemember in Iraq, when a soldier died after an explosive device hit his convoy.

Just returned from Iraq is CNN analyst Ken Pollack, director of research at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy and author of "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq." Pollack spoke with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer about the situation in Iraq.

POLLACK: I think it's a really mixed picture over there, and it's a very complicated picture.

There's a lot of good going on in Iraq. Most of the Iraqis I was able to speak to wanted the reconstruction to succeed. They didn't necessarily want Americans in their country, but they were all terrified that the United States would leave prematurely in a situation that they wouldn't have a stable political or economic situation and ... things would devolve very quickly into civil war. That was their greatest fear.

There's a lot of positive going on there. If the United States were to make a full effort and maybe change a few things that we're doing, there is every reason to believe that Iraq could, over time, develop into the kind of stable society that everyone hopes it could be.

On the other hand, there's also a lot of bad going on in Iraq, and there's some things that the U.S. is doing that are not helping matters. And there are simply other issues that the U.S. has just not gotten its arms around. And unless those things are corrected, they could take Iraq in a very negative direction.

In particular, if the U.S. isn't willing to stick it out in Iraq, I think you could see Iraq dissolve into civil war very quickly.

(more)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/02/otsc.pollack/

it's a mixed picture...

:eyes: