Cary, N.C. — Back from his eighth visit in Iraq, conservative political commentator Oliver North said Tuesday there are many positive things happening there, despite the news media's portrayal of the war.

For example, he says, Iraqi police officers are working along with U.S. troops to enforce laws and keep peace.

North also praised the troops he met, saying they are some of the brightest he has seen.

But North also said that President George W. Bush's recent decision to send an additional 21,500 U.S. soldiers to Iraq might not be the answer to the war, but only time will tell.

Instead, he says, the answer might lie in adding more Iraqi troops.

On the same day Bush addresses the nation in his annual State of the Union address, North was in Cary to speak at the Home Builder's Association of Raleigh-Wake County's 2007 Kickoff event.

When asked if there was anything he thought the president could say to get more support for the war, North said he didn't think so, in part, because the media does not support the president.

North rose to prominence in the mid-1980s during the Iran-Contra Affair, in which he was a key official involved in the sale of weapons to Iran to support the Contra rebel group, which opposed Nicaragua's government at the time.

He was sentenced in 1989 to a three-year suspended term in connection with the scandal, but the conviction was overturned in 1990.

In 1994, North unsuccessfully ran for the Senate as the Republican candidate in Virginia. Since then, he has written a number of books and worked as a syndicated columnist.

He currently hosts "War Stories," which airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on the Fox News Channel.