Does the Intelligence Community agree with that view?
Ambassador Khalilzad wisely took a small step in that direction recently when he told the Iraqi leadership: “We cannot invest billions of dollars in security forces if those forces are not trusted by the Iraqi people.” But the ambassador regrettably stopped short of telling the Iraqis that not just our dollars but our continued presence itself is not unconditional – and that because defeat of the insurgency requires a government of national unity, if the Iraqi leaders don’t soon agree on a government of national unity, we must reassess the value of our continued presence. Last Saturday was the deadline set by their constitution for the Iraqi assembly to meet. They missed that critical deadline with apparently, and regrettably, no comment from us. The Iraqi leaders are feuding while Baghdad is burning. Does the Intelligence Community agree that our clearly stating to Iraqi leaders that our continued presence is not unconditional, and that “whether they avoid all-out civil war and have a
