Here's the section of the briefing we're discussing.

Q General, this is Pam Hess with United Press International. The narrative that we've gotten here over the last year in Iraq is that it was the Golden Mosque bombing that set this all off and set Iraq on the course it's on now. But I think it's got to be more complicated than that, Can you explain to us how you think Iraq got from the elections that you talked abut to where it is now, what the missteps were on the part of the United States that we could have done differently? I think we're aware of what the Iraqi government could have done differently, as in getting organized more quickly, moving towards reconciliation, handling their oil. But could you focus on the U.S. end? What missteps did we make in the last year?

GEN. CHIARELLI: Well, I think the Golden Mosque bombing was absolutely critical. In my two years here, there's not been a single more definitive event that seemed to have changed the way Iraqis looked at themselves and looked at their country. I remember when I was over here in my first year, the issues of sectarianism were something that were possibly below the surface, but when you talked to Iraqis, they considered themselves Iraqis.

And there wasn't a single situation that I remember in my first year where they pointed to the difference between Sunni and Shi'a when you went down into the neighborhoods. When you went down into the neighborhoods in Baghdad, where I was the first time, you found mixed neighborhoods of Sunnis and Shi'as who had lived together for many, many years. And quite frankly, neighbors didn't know what the sect of each other was.

I happen to believe that we have done everything militarily we possibly can. We're working to strengthen the Iraqi military. The Iraqi army gets better every day. But I really believe the key to this conflict is to understand that it's going to take more than military action to solve the problems that face Iraq and to pull people together. It's going to take working along with other lines of operation, the economic and the political lines of operation, the reconstruction line of operation, to give Iraqis hope for their future.

I'm still struck by the fact that when I go into the provinces and talk to provincial governors and ask them what's the one thing that I could do to, in fact, make things better and create a better security situation in their province, they unanimously tell me every time, put the angry young man to work, find jobs for them. And I think that it's those kinds of things that we need to do better, and I think it's those kinds of things that we have to convince the Iraqi government are absolutely critical to lowering the level of violence at the same time that we do what's necessary for those who do not want Iraqi democracy to succeed.

Q And, sir, you don't think it's -- it's not too late for that? You think there's still an opportunity to turn things around?

GEN. CHIARELLI: I definitely think there's an opportunity to turn things around. There's no doubt in my mind there is.