Bond Plays Hardball

Sen. Kit Bond appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on Tuesday to talk about the war in Iraq. Bond said while it has been slow, progress is being made.

Missouri's senior senator said U.S. troops should stay there until the Iraqi military and Iraqi police force are ready. "Then the sacrifice will be worth it," Bond said. He offered no estimate of how long that would take.

Bond visited Iraq in January and said after talking with experts on the ground they told him success in Iraq "was very iffy a year ago," but that now there was more hope.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff appeared in a segment following Bond and pointed out that no civilian or military leaders were telling the public success "was iffy" a year ago.

"If they were telling him that a year ago . . . they sure weren't sharing that with the public. So that's the kind of thing that does raise questions about what we hear now," Isikoff said. "What does that say about how much we can rely on what they are publicly saying now, since they certainly weren't sharing what they were privately thinking then?."