First,
If Iraq does not make very real progress towards political conciliation – and that isn’t a matter of the Maliki government announcing attentions or a few laws being passed – between now and the late winter of this year, it’s almost impossible to see how even if we measure this in Iraqi time, we are not going to watch the Sunni tribes basically turn against the central government, see the country begin to splinter, see the central government fail.
Second,
...I think it was very clear, talking to Kurdish, to Sunni and Shi’ite leaders, both in Iraq and inanother part of my trip outside of it, that they see these realities, that this is a matter not of American time, as General Petraeus has referred to; it’s Iraqi time. You don’t have that much left if this national government is going to hold together
And again,
Somewhere about February, there had better be very serious political progress; not because we want it, but because I don’t believe Iraq can hold together unless at least some key steps are taken.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment