On the February 3 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, while discussing the war in Iraq with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), host Chris Wallace asked: “Senator, you started calling for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq in November of 2005. If we had followed your policy, wouldn't Al Qaeda by now be able to say that they had driven the U.S. out of Iraq?” Later, Wallace played a video clip of Clinton's response to Gen. David Petraeus' September 2007 testimony before Congress regarding the troop surge and asserted: “Senator, since then the violence is clearly dropping, has continued to drop. The -- Baghdad is sharing oil revenue with the provinces. They have passed a law to allow at least some Sunnis back into the government. Clearly, there are a lot of problems, but why are you so determined to declare defeat?” Clinton responded: “Well, that's not at all what I'm doing. I think there's a difference between tactical success on the ground -- and I've been, you know, very positive about what our young men and women in uniform can accomplish, especially if we put them in in sufficient numbers -- and strategic success,” adding, “And I think you're overstating what is happening in Iraq.”

During the January 15 Democratic presidential debate, Clinton stated that if she were to become president, "[W]e will start withdrawing [troops] within 60 days" and would continue to withdraw “one to two brigades a month” with the goal of having “nearly all the troops out by the end of the year [2009],” except for those necessary to “protect our embassy” and other “strategic interests.”

Wallace's characterization of Clinton's proposals about Iraq as “declar[ing] defeat” echoes Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (AZ), who has repeatedly referred to Clinton's and other Democrats' Iraq proposals as “surrender.” For instance, on the January 27 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, McCain falsely claimed that Clinton “would set a timetable within 60 days of withdrawal, complete withdrawal from Iraq” and said to host Tim Russert: “To me that's surrender.” Additionally, during the January 30 Republican presidential debate, McCain stated, “I'm proud to have played a role in making sure that we didn't raise the white flag and surrender in Iraq, as the Democrats wanted us to do and we would have done if we had set timetables for a withdrawal.”

From the February 3 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: Senator, you started calling for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq in November of 2005. If we had followed your policy, wouldn't Al Qaeda by now be able to say that they had driven the U.S. out of Iraq?

CLINTON: You know, Chris, I think we have to look at this in the context in which it's taking place. The so-called surge was designed to give the Iraqi government the space and time to make the tough decisions that only the Iraqis can make for themselves. It's my assessment that only now is the Iraqi government starting to grapple with problems that many of us have been pushing them to resolve for five years. And the problem is that they have up until now believed that they didn't really have to take any tough action, that President Bush had given them basically a blank check, that the American military would be there to protect them and protect other parts of the country. And I think that putting forward a very clear objective of beginning to withdraw our troops is the best way to get the Iraqis to take responsibility. So I think that it's clear there is no military solution; we can stay for a day, a month, a year, 10 or a hundred years, as Senator McCain has said would be fine with him, but I don't think that's the answer. I think we've got to bring our troops home and really require and put the pressure on the Iraqis to make the tough decisions that they have to make.

WALLACE: Well, let me follow up on that if I can. Last September, when General Petraeus testified before Congress about the surge working, here was your reaction -- let's take a look:

CLINTON [video clip]: I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.

WALLACE: Senator, since then the violence is clearly dropping, has continued to drop. The -- Baghdad is sharing oil revenue with the provinces. They have passed a law to allow at least some Sunnis back into the government. Clearly, there are a lot of problems, but why are you so determined to declare defeat?

CLINTON: Well, that's not at all what I'm doing. I think there's a difference between tactical success on the ground -- and I've been, you know, very positive about what our young men and women in uniform can accomplish, especially if we put them in in sufficient numbers -- and strategic success. And I think you're overstating what is happening in Iraq. There is a lot of problems getting money from the central government into the Sunni areas. The oil bill hasn't been resolved yet. De-Baathification is tied up in their parliament because there's such a reaction to it by so many of the Shiite factions. You know, this is obviously a fractious and often contentious government. And I think we would not even see the small signs of progress unless they knew that there was an election going on in the United States and one of the biggest issues was whether we would stay for up to 100 years or whether we would start bringing our troops home.