Friday, October 10, 2003
Back to that Kay Report… Debating points!
Despite the Administration’s spin, the Kay report on Iraq's WMD makes clear that
(1) Despite his “intentions”, Saddam couldn’t develop weapons of mass destruction because of the UN sanctions and the inspections.
(2) Weapons that existed in 1991 no longer existed-: Multiple sources with varied access and reliability have told ISG [the Iraq Survey Group] that Iraq did not have a large, ongoing centrally controlled CW [chemical weapons] program after 1991. … Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced—if not entirely destroyed—during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox [Clinton's 1998 airstrikes], 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections. (from the Kay Report)
WMD Shifting claims:
The transformation: “Imminent threat” became “WMD program” which became “intention to re-begin a program”. So, Bush could say yesterday in New Hampshire that we went to war because Saddam was evil and that he “desired” weapons. And Condi Rice, speaking to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations…
We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11th attacks. Yet the possibility remained that he might use his weapons of mass destruction or that terrorists might acquire such weapons from his regime, to mount a future attack far beyond the scale of 9/11.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031008-4.html
Intelligence Community Ticked Off
ABCNews.com noted how furious ex-CIA officers are with the Administration’s leak of Valerie Plame’s identity. They were already upset with the selective use of intelligence and the pressuring of analysts to “find” data to fit the pre-existing conclusion of ‘Saddam has wmd!’. Now, the fear is that taking any positions contrary to the Administration’s line will result in an agent’s outing.
Speaking to Nightline on condition of anonymity, with her voice digitally manipulated to avoid recognition, an undercover intelligence officer said the implications of the leak were grim.
"Just a few months ago, this administration went out of its way to tell us how important human intelligence is," she said. "We cannot find Saddam Hussein because we have no human intelligence. We cannot find Osama bin Laden because there is no human intelligence. And here you are, you have a case officer who is gathering human intelligence, who is running agents, and here you are exposing her and everyone that she came in contact with."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/US/cia031006_leak.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: More P.R.
It’s a full-time sell job. You can't downplay the effectiveness of lies that are repeatedly put forth. They call for repetitive counters. The media are only partly buying in, playing up the electricity being on for four consecutive days, but not ignoring the multiple points of violence- 8 Iraqi police and 3 GIs killed, a Spanish military attache killed outside of his home.
Iraqis Just Say No to Turks:
The US-created Governing Council broke with the Administration in saying they didn’t want their neighbors to be amongst the occupiers, in fact clarifying that they wanted no neighboring country to directly participate in the peace process / reconstruction. “No Iraqi politician supports the Washington-Ankara decision.”
More at http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3218,36-337295,0.html
PBS Frontline More confirmation fro this week's program, first aired last night… of lack of anticipation/preparation, of the power of the Wolfowitz/Chalabi propagandizing. When interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air, the producer shrank from asserting that “lies” were told to facilitate the invasion, instead expressing befuddlement as to ‘how they reached their conclusions’ that Saddam was a threat. Of course we have been hearing this material from other sources, but nice to have PBS cover it, however belatedly. It’s being repeated; more info. at www.pbs.org.
Mysterious Deaths: UPI’s Mark Benjamin focuses on unexplained blood clots which are among the reasons a number of U.S. soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom have died from sudden illnesses. In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes.
A disturbing parallel has also surfaced: soldiers becoming ill or dying from similar ailments in the United States. In some cases, the soldiers, their families and civilian doctors blame vaccines given to them by the military, particularly the anthrax or smallpox shots.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031006-113325-5591r
What’s Happening, Afghanistan
Foreign press sources have been noting the growing power of the Taliban and assert that major battles may lie ahead. The Taliban have been mobilizing in Pakistan, allegedly with the support of Pakistani religious parties, the local drug mafia and al-Qaeda. The Pakistani government denies charges that they too are again offering considerable support. Add to that “fierce warlord battles” (BBC), Osama still loose on the border…
The Nation has more at http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Oct-2003/9/main/top2.asp
Krugman: Could cite him on a regular basis. From today’s:
Still, some would say that criticism should focus only on Mr. Bush's policies, not on his person. But no administration in memory has made paeans to the president's character — his "honor and integrity" — so central to its political strategy. Nor has any previous administration been so determined to portray the president as a hero, going so far as to pose him in line with the heads on Mount Rushmore, or arrange that landing on the aircraft carrier. Surely, then, Mr. Bush's critics have the right to point out that the life story of the man inside the flight suit isn't particularly heroic — that he has never taken a risk or made a sacrifice for the sake of his country, and that his business career is a story of murky deals and insider privilege.
In the months after 9/11, a shocked nation wanted to believe the best of its leader, and Mr. Bush was treated with reverence. But he abused the trust placed in him, pushing a partisan agenda that has left the nation weakened and divided. Yes, I know that's a rude thing to say. But it's also the truth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/opinion/10KRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position
-R
Despite the Administration’s spin, the Kay report on Iraq's WMD makes clear that
(1) Despite his “intentions”, Saddam couldn’t develop weapons of mass destruction because of the UN sanctions and the inspections.
(2) Weapons that existed in 1991 no longer existed-: Multiple sources with varied access and reliability have told ISG [the Iraq Survey Group] that Iraq did not have a large, ongoing centrally controlled CW [chemical weapons] program after 1991. … Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced—if not entirely destroyed—during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox [Clinton's 1998 airstrikes], 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections. (from the Kay Report)
WMD Shifting claims:
The transformation: “Imminent threat” became “WMD program” which became “intention to re-begin a program”. So, Bush could say yesterday in New Hampshire that we went to war because Saddam was evil and that he “desired” weapons. And Condi Rice, speaking to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations…
We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11th attacks. Yet the possibility remained that he might use his weapons of mass destruction or that terrorists might acquire such weapons from his regime, to mount a future attack far beyond the scale of 9/11.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031008-4.html
Intelligence Community Ticked Off
ABCNews.com noted how furious ex-CIA officers are with the Administration’s leak of Valerie Plame’s identity. They were already upset with the selective use of intelligence and the pressuring of analysts to “find” data to fit the pre-existing conclusion of ‘Saddam has wmd!’. Now, the fear is that taking any positions contrary to the Administration’s line will result in an agent’s outing.
Speaking to Nightline on condition of anonymity, with her voice digitally manipulated to avoid recognition, an undercover intelligence officer said the implications of the leak were grim.
"Just a few months ago, this administration went out of its way to tell us how important human intelligence is," she said. "We cannot find Saddam Hussein because we have no human intelligence. We cannot find Osama bin Laden because there is no human intelligence. And here you are, you have a case officer who is gathering human intelligence, who is running agents, and here you are exposing her and everyone that she came in contact with."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/US/cia031006_leak.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: More P.R.
It’s a full-time sell job. You can't downplay the effectiveness of lies that are repeatedly put forth. They call for repetitive counters. The media are only partly buying in, playing up the electricity being on for four consecutive days, but not ignoring the multiple points of violence- 8 Iraqi police and 3 GIs killed, a Spanish military attache killed outside of his home.
Iraqis Just Say No to Turks:
The US-created Governing Council broke with the Administration in saying they didn’t want their neighbors to be amongst the occupiers, in fact clarifying that they wanted no neighboring country to directly participate in the peace process / reconstruction. “No Iraqi politician supports the Washington-Ankara decision.”
More at http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3218,36-337295,0.html
PBS Frontline More confirmation fro this week's program, first aired last night… of lack of anticipation/preparation, of the power of the Wolfowitz/Chalabi propagandizing. When interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air, the producer shrank from asserting that “lies” were told to facilitate the invasion, instead expressing befuddlement as to ‘how they reached their conclusions’ that Saddam was a threat. Of course we have been hearing this material from other sources, but nice to have PBS cover it, however belatedly. It’s being repeated; more info. at www.pbs.org.
Mysterious Deaths: UPI’s Mark Benjamin focuses on unexplained blood clots which are among the reasons a number of U.S. soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom have died from sudden illnesses. In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes.
A disturbing parallel has also surfaced: soldiers becoming ill or dying from similar ailments in the United States. In some cases, the soldiers, their families and civilian doctors blame vaccines given to them by the military, particularly the anthrax or smallpox shots.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031006-113325-5591r
What’s Happening, Afghanistan
Foreign press sources have been noting the growing power of the Taliban and assert that major battles may lie ahead. The Taliban have been mobilizing in Pakistan, allegedly with the support of Pakistani religious parties, the local drug mafia and al-Qaeda. The Pakistani government denies charges that they too are again offering considerable support. Add to that “fierce warlord battles” (BBC), Osama still loose on the border…
The Nation has more at http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Oct-2003/9/main/top2.asp
Krugman: Could cite him on a regular basis. From today’s:
Still, some would say that criticism should focus only on Mr. Bush's policies, not on his person. But no administration in memory has made paeans to the president's character — his "honor and integrity" — so central to its political strategy. Nor has any previous administration been so determined to portray the president as a hero, going so far as to pose him in line with the heads on Mount Rushmore, or arrange that landing on the aircraft carrier. Surely, then, Mr. Bush's critics have the right to point out that the life story of the man inside the flight suit isn't particularly heroic — that he has never taken a risk or made a sacrifice for the sake of his country, and that his business career is a story of murky deals and insider privilege.
In the months after 9/11, a shocked nation wanted to believe the best of its leader, and Mr. Bush was treated with reverence. But he abused the trust placed in him, pushing a partisan agenda that has left the nation weakened and divided. Yes, I know that's a rude thing to say. But it's also the truth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/opinion/10KRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position
-R
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Rush is a great American. I am confident he can overcome any obstacles he faces right now. -President Bush, re embattled radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh
Defense Department Shares
CNN (Chris Plante) blandly cites the General Accounting Office(GAO) as the source of a report that the Defense Department (DoD) had sold equipment to the public that could be utilized for making biological warfare agents. The sale was finally halted on September 19.
"Many items needed to establish a laboratory for making biological warfare agents were being sold on the Internet to the public from DoD's excess property inventory for pennies on the dollar, making them both easy and economical to obtain," the GAO draft report said
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/06/gao.pentagon/index.html
Wilson-Plamegate: Such Integrity!
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the media outrage over the farcical “investigation” of the leak. While the headline was that all documents would be handed over to the justice department, they actually were given to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez for his review. The Dallas Morning News carried the report, and few others bothered, thus far. And, too many in the media are talking of the “Democrats” being upset with this, reducing this illegality to “partisan politics”.
There were also some woefully inarticulate comments from Bush on a host of issues today that the radio media had to carefully edit, plus this not-exactly-fiery Bush comment re the Leak.
I mean this town is a -- is a town full of people who like to leak information. And I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials. I don't have any idea. I'd like to. I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators -- full disclosure, everything we know the investigators will find out. I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is -- partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers…
Musings from General-Candidate Clark:
He has a thoughtful piece in the current NY Review of Books, and his recent book Winning Modern Wars contains some startling revelations. The best: In November, 2001 he learned of detailed planning for war on Iraq, and that the Administration was already targeting six other nations for the upcoming 5 year period.
As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan. I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned.
(page 130).
More on this at http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0340/schanberg.php
You Are What You Watch:
A study done by a research center affiliated with the University of Maryland has found that those who watch the Fox News Channel were four times as likely to hold “demonstrably untrue” positions about the war in Iraq compared to those who get their news from NPR and PBS.
"When evidence surfaces that a significant portion of the public has just got a hole in the picture ... this is a potential problem in the way democracy functions," says Clay Ramsay, research director for the Washington-based Program on International Policy Attitudes, which studies foreign-policy issues.
http://www.sunspot.net/features/lifestyle/bal-to.fox04oct04,0,3378189.story?coll=bal-pe-today
What’s Happening, Iraq:
More deaths, of U.S. soldiers and of Iraqi army veterans, as protests demanding back pay have proceeded for most of this week. Reports of ongoing harassment of media continue. Aljazeera reports that one of their cameramen was detained/arrested, allegedly while he was filming a demonstration by unemployed Iraqis.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2BE42E8D-3D53-41AE-8D09-14CD284699D1.htm
Targeting Venezuela
The US News (and World Report) (Linda Robinson) labels President Chavez a terrorist. The article claims that Venezuela is now “providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists.” Quoting “senior U.S. military and intelligence officials”, the report notes that the Administration considers this “an unpredictably dangerous mix and are gathering more information about the intentions of a country that sits 1,000 miles south of Florida.”
In turn, Chavez is purportedly telling Washington to crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan terrorists that he claims are training in Florida. He said that he had cancelled a trip to the U.S. out of fear for his life.
-R
Defense Department Shares
CNN (Chris Plante) blandly cites the General Accounting Office(GAO) as the source of a report that the Defense Department (DoD) had sold equipment to the public that could be utilized for making biological warfare agents. The sale was finally halted on September 19.
"Many items needed to establish a laboratory for making biological warfare agents were being sold on the Internet to the public from DoD's excess property inventory for pennies on the dollar, making them both easy and economical to obtain," the GAO draft report said
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/06/gao.pentagon/index.html
Wilson-Plamegate: Such Integrity!
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the media outrage over the farcical “investigation” of the leak. While the headline was that all documents would be handed over to the justice department, they actually were given to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez for his review. The Dallas Morning News carried the report, and few others bothered, thus far. And, too many in the media are talking of the “Democrats” being upset with this, reducing this illegality to “partisan politics”.
There were also some woefully inarticulate comments from Bush on a host of issues today that the radio media had to carefully edit, plus this not-exactly-fiery Bush comment re the Leak.
I mean this town is a -- is a town full of people who like to leak information. And I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials. I don't have any idea. I'd like to. I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators -- full disclosure, everything we know the investigators will find out. I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is -- partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers…
Musings from General-Candidate Clark:
He has a thoughtful piece in the current NY Review of Books, and his recent book Winning Modern Wars contains some startling revelations. The best: In November, 2001 he learned of detailed planning for war on Iraq, and that the Administration was already targeting six other nations for the upcoming 5 year period.
As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan. I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned.
(page 130).
More on this at http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0340/schanberg.php
You Are What You Watch:
A study done by a research center affiliated with the University of Maryland has found that those who watch the Fox News Channel were four times as likely to hold “demonstrably untrue” positions about the war in Iraq compared to those who get their news from NPR and PBS.
"When evidence surfaces that a significant portion of the public has just got a hole in the picture ... this is a potential problem in the way democracy functions," says Clay Ramsay, research director for the Washington-based Program on International Policy Attitudes, which studies foreign-policy issues.
http://www.sunspot.net/features/lifestyle/bal-to.fox04oct04,0,3378189.story?coll=bal-pe-today
What’s Happening, Iraq:
More deaths, of U.S. soldiers and of Iraqi army veterans, as protests demanding back pay have proceeded for most of this week. Reports of ongoing harassment of media continue. Aljazeera reports that one of their cameramen was detained/arrested, allegedly while he was filming a demonstration by unemployed Iraqis.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2BE42E8D-3D53-41AE-8D09-14CD284699D1.htm
Targeting Venezuela
The US News (and World Report) (Linda Robinson) labels President Chavez a terrorist. The article claims that Venezuela is now “providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists.” Quoting “senior U.S. military and intelligence officials”, the report notes that the Administration considers this “an unpredictably dangerous mix and are gathering more information about the intentions of a country that sits 1,000 miles south of Florida.”
In turn, Chavez is purportedly telling Washington to crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan terrorists that he claims are training in Florida. He said that he had cancelled a trip to the U.S. out of fear for his life.
-R
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Our understanding of the status of Iraq's WMD program was always bounded by large uncertainties and had to be heavily caveated. -Kay Report
Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal (weapons of mass destruction). - Bush, 3/17/03
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Drug crisis… in Baghdad!
The BBC reports that these are boom times for hallucinogens as well as Valium and sleeping pills. The local, minimalist police force is overwhelmed by problems that are compounded by Saddam’s release of thousands of criminals prior to the invasion. (No, they weren’t all “political prisoners.”)
Still Another, Important Lie:
Jeff Gerth in the NY Times focused on the pre-invasion lies the Administration told about Iraq being capable of paying for its rebuilding from its oil wealth, thus not burdening the American taxpayer. Apparently, a far more pessimistic/realistic estimate had been made by a governmental task force that was assigned the duty of assessing Iraq’s oil industry. This group, part of the Pentagon-based war planning, had learned that the sanctions / trade embargoes had drastically lowered production. Now, with the sabotage…
In other words, they knew, they lied… and the public takes the hit.
Wilson-Plamegate
* The Administration admitted that the leak exposed the identity of a CIA front company, compounding the original damage from the illegal/treasonous act.
* Lewis Scooter Libby and Elliot Abrams deny that they were the sources of the leak,
though more whispers have pointed to Libby.
The FBI - Pakistan Connection:
The Asian Times (Syed Saleem Shahzad) reports that the FBI has so penetrated the Pakistani intelligence establishment that they orchestrated the attack on Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the past few days. Perhaps they can use their new position to find bin Laden, but in view of the complicated relationship between Pakistan and the U.S., it’s not clear what the FBI would do if it “found” bin Laden. Seymour Hersh’s reports and others by the Asian Times, make clear that spiriting bin Laden out of the Pakistani-Afghan border area is not an unambivalent goal.
Lest We Forget:
This is an anti-labor Administration. One recent development is their imposing a new round of regulations- reporting requirements as to financial information that would force unions to expend resources that are needed for serving their workers. As the AFL-CIO estimates, these regulations (Hey, I thought the Administration’s philosophy was anti-regulation?) will cost unions an additional $ 1 billion, it’s assumed that this will result in smaller unions going under and that others will be forced to consolidate.
Middle East: Wither the Iraq war leading to a New Middle East?
…Only worsening between Israel and the Palestinians. Another devastating bombing in Israel and an eyebrow – raising Israeli striking at Palestinians well inside Syrian territory, virtually 30 years to the day since Israel last did this, during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The Administration made clear its sympathies by all but branding Syria part of the ‘Axis of Evil’ as the Syrians took the incursion to the U.N.
General Sanchez warns some more: The Chicago Tribune (James O'Shea) contributes a report on Ricardo Sanchez warning that the level of American forces will need to be maintained for years. And, he cautioned, we should be prepared for a "significant engagement where tens of American soldiers or coalition soldiers" are killed.
Iran: Rapprochement?
Jason Burke and Dan de Luce of the Sunday Observer (GB) report that ongoing quiet diplomacy involving unsaid notables has yielded progress as to Iran’s nuclear program and have dealt with U.S. charges of Iran’s meddling in Iraq. The talks contrast with the public rhetoric of charges and countercharges.
-R
Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal (weapons of mass destruction). - Bush, 3/17/03
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Drug crisis… in Baghdad!
The BBC reports that these are boom times for hallucinogens as well as Valium and sleeping pills. The local, minimalist police force is overwhelmed by problems that are compounded by Saddam’s release of thousands of criminals prior to the invasion. (No, they weren’t all “political prisoners.”)
Still Another, Important Lie:
Jeff Gerth in the NY Times focused on the pre-invasion lies the Administration told about Iraq being capable of paying for its rebuilding from its oil wealth, thus not burdening the American taxpayer. Apparently, a far more pessimistic/realistic estimate had been made by a governmental task force that was assigned the duty of assessing Iraq’s oil industry. This group, part of the Pentagon-based war planning, had learned that the sanctions / trade embargoes had drastically lowered production. Now, with the sabotage…
In other words, they knew, they lied… and the public takes the hit.
Wilson-Plamegate
* The Administration admitted that the leak exposed the identity of a CIA front company, compounding the original damage from the illegal/treasonous act.
* Lewis Scooter Libby and Elliot Abrams deny that they were the sources of the leak,
though more whispers have pointed to Libby.
The FBI - Pakistan Connection:
The Asian Times (Syed Saleem Shahzad) reports that the FBI has so penetrated the Pakistani intelligence establishment that they orchestrated the attack on Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the past few days. Perhaps they can use their new position to find bin Laden, but in view of the complicated relationship between Pakistan and the U.S., it’s not clear what the FBI would do if it “found” bin Laden. Seymour Hersh’s reports and others by the Asian Times, make clear that spiriting bin Laden out of the Pakistani-Afghan border area is not an unambivalent goal.
Lest We Forget:
This is an anti-labor Administration. One recent development is their imposing a new round of regulations- reporting requirements as to financial information that would force unions to expend resources that are needed for serving their workers. As the AFL-CIO estimates, these regulations (Hey, I thought the Administration’s philosophy was anti-regulation?) will cost unions an additional $ 1 billion, it’s assumed that this will result in smaller unions going under and that others will be forced to consolidate.
Middle East: Wither the Iraq war leading to a New Middle East?
…Only worsening between Israel and the Palestinians. Another devastating bombing in Israel and an eyebrow – raising Israeli striking at Palestinians well inside Syrian territory, virtually 30 years to the day since Israel last did this, during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The Administration made clear its sympathies by all but branding Syria part of the ‘Axis of Evil’ as the Syrians took the incursion to the U.N.
General Sanchez warns some more: The Chicago Tribune (James O'Shea) contributes a report on Ricardo Sanchez warning that the level of American forces will need to be maintained for years. And, he cautioned, we should be prepared for a "significant engagement where tens of American soldiers or coalition soldiers" are killed.
Iran: Rapprochement?
Jason Burke and Dan de Luce of the Sunday Observer (GB) report that ongoing quiet diplomacy involving unsaid notables has yielded progress as to Iran’s nuclear program and have dealt with U.S. charges of Iran’s meddling in Iraq. The talks contrast with the public rhetoric of charges and countercharges.
-R
