KISSINGER ON IRAQ

From an interview with the BBC:
BBC Sunday AM
Sunday, 19 November 2006, 11:11 GMT

ANDREW MARR: Do you think there is any hope left of a clear military victory in Iraq?

HENRY KISSINGER: If you mean by clear military victory an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible.

[SNIP]

ANDREW MARR: And so that means that one way or another America and her allies in your view have to stay the course?

HENRY KISSINGER: No. I think we have to redefine the course. But I don't believe that the alternative is between military victory as it had been defined previously, or total withdrawal.

The art of leadership now will be to find a course that will protect our values, our interests and the possibility of some progress in the area without simply blindly following a strategy which however reasonable it was when it was adopted, has now brought us to a point...

ANDREW MARR: Has failed.

HENRY KISSINGER: Has failed to achieve the objectives that were defined within a timeframe that our political processes will support.