CIA Said Instability Seemed ‘Irreversible’
Does anyone think a strong federal government will take hold in Iraq? Why do we keep pushing the strategy knowing it is not working?
WP-Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House.
For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a “Churchillian” vision of “victory” in Iraq and defend the country’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. “A constitutional order is emerging,” he said.
Later that morning, around the same conference table, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said “the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible,” adding that he could not “point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around,” according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants
“The government is unable to govern,” Hayden concluded. “We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function.”
OIL.
SERVICES.
CONTRACTS.
John,
This is why I have been saying that it doesn’t matter if you have a plan or not for leaving.
caroline
I disagree I think the report tells you that are only hope is to recognize the groups and stopping pushing a strong federal government. And we must bring in regional players to pull this off and get our troops out. Also we must understand that this is a containment strategy and we must work to not be dependent on their oil ASAP.
John,
What you are advocating I wouldn’t really call “a plan” since we are pretty much leaving it up to them and their neighbors to make the decisions on how best to go forward.