RICE ON IRAQ

(From a December 21, 2006 interview by Anne Gearan of the Associated Press)

QUESTION: One last one on Iraq, there's an accounting term called, sunk loss, which essentially.

SECRETARY RICE: Sunk loss.

QUESTION: Yeah, cut your losses. Go back to -- yes, I've got to go back to -- yeah. And again, basically don't throw good money after bad. What's -- I mean, what's another hundred billion going to do that $400 billion hasn't already?

SECRETARY RICE: I don't think it's a matter of money. I think it's a matter of stages of development that Iraq is having to go through. I'd be the first to say it's taken longer and it's been harder and there have been more challenges, some of them expected than I would have thought. But I think the fact is also that along the way there have been plenty of markers that show that this is a country that is worth the investment because once it emerges as a country that is a stabilizing factor, you'll have a very different kind of Middle East. And I know that from the point of view of not just monetary costs, but the sacrifice of American lives, a lot has been sacrificed for Iraq, a lot has been invested in Iraq. But the President wouldn't ask for the continued sacrifice and the continued investment if he did not believe and in fact I believe as well that this will in fact -- we can in fact succeed and that it's imperative that we succeed.


I wonder what these markers are? Is the rapprochement of Iraq with Iran one of them?