AFN: Sir, thank you for joining us.

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Thank you, thank you for inviting me. I want to thank all the service men and women for their service and their sacrifices here in Iraq and in Afghanistan where I was before coming here. The nation owes you a debt of gratitude for the sacrifices that you’re making and we’re all very grateful to you.

AFN: You’ve been in Iraq here for a couple of weeks now, how does your experiences as the Ambassador to Afghanistan help you take on this new position?

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: It’s been very helpful because in Afghanistan I was involved in drafting a constitution, in helping the Afghans with their constitution. When I got there, and when I arrived here drafting the constitution was the main issue that Iraqis have been focused on. So the issues of building institutions such as an army and a police force, building bridges across communities that did not exist because of lack of trust, and dealing with militias – how do you reduce the role of militias? And building institutions, whether they’re schools, clinics or a ministry. We did all of that and we continued to do that when I was an ambassador in Afghanistan. So the experiences I had in Afghanistan have been invaluable to me coming to Iraq. Although Iraq is different than Afghanistan, but there are also similarities in terms of transitioning the country from one state, in the case of Iraq another terror regime, to a democratic regime and an environment that a significant part of the population has not bought into this new political process. I was in a neighborhood that was not altogether helpful. Afghanistan, which went from a backwards, totalitarian regime of the Taliban, it was a time during which there was a broad buy in by the Afghans in the new political system with the difficulties in the neighborhood being there but not as great as they are in Iraq. So I am familiar with the generic issues of regime change, state and nation building processes and the experience in Afghanistan will be helpful. But I have to constantly remind myself that it’s different than Afghanistan and that I couldn’t try the approach that this worked in Afghanistan and we can do exactly the same here. You’ve got to be flexible in terms of the means that you apply. You have to be open-minded in terms of the range of issues and factors and their impact on Iraq. They’re not the same, not the same as in Afghanistan.

AFN: It’s definitely a unique situation.

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: It is. It is absolutely.

AFN: What kind of progress have you seen the Coalition and Iraqi Forces make while you’ve been out?

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: I’ve not had the time, given that I’ve been here only for three weeks, in regard to the progress on the military side. I’m hoping that once we get the constitution out of the way that I will have the opportunity to do that. I know that we’re working hard to increase the Iraqi capability, building the Iraqi armed forces, building the Iraqi police forces and other security institutions so that they can take care of their own security. Building institutions, it’s very hard. Its just not only the issue of training people, like making sure they have unit cohesion they are embedded in institutions, they can sustain them and support them, and they’re commanded well and that also they have loyalties and keep them in order and that the Iraqi population trusts them and that they take time. With regard to the war against the extremists and terrorists, it’s a difficult issue because these terrorists are targeting not only our forces but also civilians and part of the population is not supporting the main process. Some Iraqis have joined them and at the same time they are sometimes in the midst of the civilian populations that pose particularly difficult challenges to deal with. What is required is, first that you keep the civilian population away from the extremism and terrorism, that’s why the constitution is important. It has to be a kind of national compact, a buy in from all Iraqis. And two, we’ve got to build the institutions in which Iraqis have confidence, meaning the constitution. Which will be a piece of paper that is actually given life and though the limitation of this requirement is in the institution and at the same time we need to make sure that assistance to the terrorists and extremists do not come across the border into Iraq. That’s also hard because cooperation with the neighboring states, we need to think of ways to simplify things and to cooperate and at the same time, of course, we need to work with Iraqis to include services, economic conditions, employment opportunities for the people otherwise they become vulnerable to the terrorists and extremists. And then we keep our military forces and the Iraqi forces focused on the isolated extremists and terrorists. We want to isolate them, separate them from the rest of the population and then sharply focus on them. I’ve been working closely with our military leaders here, General Casey and others to spell out and implement an integrated strategy that has the political, economic and institution building, the regional as well as the application of forces in an integrated package and the outreach to the population. I’ve had a good history in terms of being able to work with our military whether it was in the Pentagon in the early nineties or in Afghanistan. I have every confidence that General Casey and I and the other military leaders we have here will be able to work together to develop the right policies and approaches and implement them. I see my role as dealing with political means and other means and the military to reduce the insurgency and the security problems so that the military is not the only instrument that we use. I think it’s been said and I’ve said many times that the only instrument that you have is a hammer soon everything looks like a nail. I want to be sure that we’re using the variety of instruments that’s available to us in an integrated fashion. Balance the appropriate balance among them to attack the problem and differentiate it wherever the problem is complicated and that we don’t over relay on one instrument and under utilize other instruments that may be more appropriate to the circumstances.

AFN: With all the different ways in which you’re attacking the situation, one of them I’m assuming is getting the constitution written to hold the Iraqis together and you also have the elections coming up pretty soon, just how big would you say that these both are in bringing the Iraqis together for this young democracy?

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Very important, that’s fundamental. Even after an insurgency here lasting a very long time there’s no buy in by the Sunni community and there’s no buy in by the Shi’a community. So it’s critical to get this national compact, an agreement among the Iraqis about the future, and all Iraqis seeing themselves as a part of this new Iraq. And then its very important that we, in a systematic way, its essential to protect those people who joined the new Iraq, because if we’re not able to do that, and I don’t mean that the American forces have to do it, the Iraq’s could do it themselves or the Iraqis in combination with the Coalition Forces, because if you can’t provide them security and they will be intimidated or will be killed and others then will feel intimidated and not join the process. A fundamental requirement for stability is the constitution. Elections are of course the next very important thing after the constitution is ratified. A day all Iraqis who bought into the constitution will participate in the elections. Unfortunately the last elections, although they were a big success, but the big problem was that the Sunni Arabs did not participate in appropriate numbers and I’m hoping that that will change in the aftermath of the constitution and we’ll not only have the national compact but we’ll have the manifestation that there is a compact by the participation of the people in the political process and in the elections that are going to take place in December.

AFN: What provisions would you say are probably going to go into the constitution that will help take the civilians of Iraq from terrorism?

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: The key part will be the Sunni buy in if we’re successful. That will bring the swamp that’s now parts of Baghdad and western Iraq and isolate them, the terrorists and extremists, and then apply force against them while protecting those who joined the process. But also there are rules and procedures as part of the constitution with regard to how institutions are going to interact with Iraqi civilians. The rights of civilians, the court of law, due process, limitations on what security forces can and cannot do, freedom of speech and other rights that are so important so the constitution becomes successful. So the constitution is very important, fundamental. If it works it will be a great help (inaudible) in the short term. A great help, a tremendous help for setting Iraq on the right path to be a successful country, a model country in this part of the world. So it’s a big thing it’s a big deal (inaudible) the debate and expressions about the constitution.

AFN: Reconstruction in Iraq has taken longer because of terrorist activities targeting things like oil refineries, electric power plants. In your opinion, how’s the reconstruction going?

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Again, I don’t have the time to really engage my mind with the reconstruction. I’ve some set of principles that I feel comfortable with when I think about economic reconstruction and that it has to be decentralized, it has to be private sector oriented, it has to be turned to local ownership, local involvement and we need to make sure that when we do reconstruction that Iraqis know about it and that we simplify the systems (inaudible). When talking about electricity that we’re thinking not only about electricity generation but also about distribution, about the grid, about what sort of fuels the generators need and where’s that going to come from, the reliability of fuel supplies for the generators and the security of the whole system. It’s not good to spend a lot of money, a billion dollars or so with a lot of fanfare about generating a lot of electricity, building a plant and then because of fuel or the ways its operated or maintained or because of the distribution problem it does not change the situation of the Iraqis. We’ll review where we are in regard to the reconstruction and make adjustments as appropriate. There’s a lot going on and the military has done a lot with the CERP projects and civilians also within IRMO, AID and PCO have done a lot of projects but I’ve not had the opportunity yet for a comprehensive review of the reconstruction programs across the board.

AFN: Do you have any last words you’d like to leave with the U.S. service members here in Iraq?

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: I want to thank them first of all, I’m grateful for your service and I know its very hard being away from one’s loved ones. You have been a source of inspiration to me when I served in Afghanistan. I could have gone back to Washington or somewhere else, but I feel like I have reenlisted because of the sacrifices that the men and women of the military make here. God be with you and I’m grateful for your service.

AFN: Thank you very much.

AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: Thank you.