I was able to join a blogger conference call with Major General William Caldwell this morning, along with a few other bloggers. Today's podcast is a recording I made of that call in it's entirety. There is some good stuff here, with great questions from the bloggers, and Gen. Caldwell's patient answers. Below the fold there are my notes with timings for those interested. I was only able to ask one question, so I asked about Jack Murtha's comments that 64% of the Iraqis want us to leave. As you will hear, they want us to leave after the security has been established. Not yet, but eventually.

Your choice of listening methods here:
Download Subscribe Add Wizbang Podcast to iTunes

Live blogging notes:

Questions in the order people arrive on the conference call:

• Andrew Lubin - U.S. Cav. On Point
• Bill Roggio - The Fourth Rail
• Richard Fernandez - Belmont Club
• Charlie Quidnunc - Wizbang Podcast
• Mark Finkelstein - Newsbusters
• Victoria Coats - RedState

0:23 Major General Caldwell joins the call. First Petraeus press conference in 18 hours. Will talk about efforts will take time and determiniation. Challenging. Doable but difficult. Expectations. Operation Farad Al Kahun. Patience. Plans to improve security. Some positive signs.

3:00 People in Iraq must chose their loyalty to their tribe or the state.

3:31 Petraeus will share experiences walking downtown Baghdad on foot. Shaking hands, asking questions. Base of current visuals to draw from. Budget conference, good neighbors conference.

4:20 Andrew Lubin - US Calvary On point. With Marines. Concept of outpost. Ramadi, 60 meters security patrols. Manpower intensive. Convoys shot going in and out. Pentagon statement England another 7000 troops.

5:20 Joint Security Stations. Building in Sadr City. Originally planned 30-40, now planning 70. Working well in Baghdad.

7:02 Can we build a perimeter around JSS. Increasing exposure and risk, but overall risk going down. Big bases are cumbersome to get in & out easily. Much better to establish long term relationships & good will.

8:34 Difference in maps over time. Very encouraged by families not moving out. Not large numbers. 5-10 families.

9:20 Wished we had done it a year ago. Have to protect the people. We thought we were doing it before.

10:00 Bill Roggio. Fight has moved into provinces. Karbala, Jail break in Mosul. Units stripped down to secure Baghdad. Leaving provinces vulnerable?

10:45 In the past we saw violence leave Baghdad. Same thing this time. 2 brigades or 5 US forces here now. Situation dependent where the 3-5th brigades go. Might go to provinces. Go wherever required.

11:50 Training 6500 (?) per month. Flexible where Iraqis go?

12:10 Discussion IGFC where Iraqi troops go. Want to rotate their battalions in Baghdad, rotate back to where they came from.

13:00 7 of 9 are here now of Iraqi battalions. 70% to 103% of strength. Ability to move battalions.

14:10 Richard Fernandez - How to convince the public to be patient? Take months to bring all the forces in. Just in the early stages Farud al Kanun (sp?). Gradual but important progress.

15:12 2 out of 5 brigades so far. 5-7,000 enabling forces later. It will take some time. Keep talking to people.

15:40 Is the enemy going to reinforce?

17:32 Looking for the VBID makers. That is what Al Qaeda will use.

19:37 Charlie Quidnunc - Do we poll? Collect data on Iraqi sentiment. Checkpoints in Faluja. Iraqi army and police from two sects as one team. Iraqi said: "I want you there, but I don't want you here forever." I don't want you to leave now, but I want you to leave. It's a matter of time. Not until greater security. I can site data too, 94% want a unified Iraq. Don't want separate divisions.

21:41 Mark Finkelstein. We cover the coverage. Are you seeing a change in media coverage. Brian Williams. Sentiment of Iraqi people. Quote from Brian Williams. We are not reporting what is not happening. Are you seeing some change in the media reporting when they get there on the ground.

23:12 More neutral reporting than in the past. Just with Al Jezera English told him that there is a real change in the city right now. I'm down their all the time. People are feeling that something is different. Not able to articulate. When the people feel it, the press will respond.

30:00 Sadr City - when those reports start coming out. More imbeds in the last 24 hours. Surprised. People are open and allow them to come in. Not confrontational.

31:12 New York Times. Vest bombing - we hold the police responsible. Police were keeping someone from searching. Police left, bomb went off. Tens of thousands of people, just two people can cause such damage. Challenging. THat volume of people moving.

32:30 They are doing it. Actually doing a fairly good job of this thing.

32:40 Victoria Coats. Iraqi security forces taking over - Are we taking tactical orders from Iraqi leaders. General Abud BOC. American forces are working in support of his tactical plan. US battalion working in each district. We still have Gen Fil in command of his forces. He conducts operations as directed by Gen Abud. Huge step forward. Never taken control before. Looking for rotation operations.

34:20 A lot of very positive steps as they take command and control of their operation.

33:10 Closing comments. I was asked a question yesterday by a reporter. Any correlation between cache finds and tips from national tips hotline. Came back and grabbed assessment folks. Three factors: increased presence in the city. Have not had, but not out in the city. By going out into 40 JSS moving to 70. One a day opening up. Increased presence reduces violence increase tips. Talking to us more. From that we are getting more weapons cache. Overall average percentage found using tips is 8%. Quantities tips up, cache found up. 9/06 2/07. Tips numbers to cache find, correlation is .86. Very high correlation.