Raddatz Finds Increased Dangers on 12th Trip to Iraq

Feb. 7, 2007 — -- ABC's Martha Raddatz is in Iraq this week, traveling from Baghdad's Green Zone to a number of operating bases in Anbar Province, where Sunni militias and al Qaeda fighters have posed a formidable challenge to coalition troops.

The following is a conversation she had with Charles Gibson on "World News" about the differences she's noticed during her 12th trip to Iraq since 2003.

Charles Gibson: Martha [its] trip No. 12 for you over four years. What has particularly struck you as different this time?

Martha Raddatz: I think perhaps the pessimism of some soldiers. I haven't really seen that in the past. Now one officer explained it as pessimistic optimism, but I think they're very, very worried about the outcome here in Iraq.

I was also struck by the sense of personal safety, Charlie. I think a lot of soldiers don't think about it very often, a lot of journalists who have been here don't think about it very often, but this time the soldiers were talking about it a lot.

I was in … Fallujah and overheard six or seven soldiers talking about being blown out of their Humvee and they said, "Oh, and did you hear what happened to the other soldier." So I think that is definitely an atmosphere here. It seems very, very dangerous. More so then in past trips.

Gibson: [Is that] Exemplified by restrictions on not only where you could go but how you could go on this trip, even though you went many places?

Raddatz: Yeah, I mean, there's this terrible choice now. You can go by air and clearly insurgents are targeting aircraft, or you can go in convoys, which are also very, very dangerous. So the travel is extremely limited. People check their routes many times.

We went through Ramadi yesterday with one of the generals, and you could not believe the vehicles that we were riding in. There's a vehicle called a Cougar that they've recently adapted to the streets here, and that has handled IEDs very, very well. The general was driving in that vehicle and the Humvees are heavily armored. But still it's very dangerous.