Those opposition forces and American Special Forces [would] begin to leave the sanctuaries of northern, eastern and southeastern Iraq and move toward the central region of the country, where Saddam's forces are located, ... try to draw out the Iraqi Republican Guard and army forces wherever possible, then attack them from the air as you draw them out. |
To be fundamentally optimistic would be to go too far. |
To be fundamentally optimistic would be to go too far. The economy is only changing very gradually. In 2005, Iraq was treading water, with a slight forward motion. 2006 will be largely the same; the insurgency will impede the recovery. |
U.S.-France military ties have always been good, except for a brief period when Rumsfeld sought payback over Iraq. And more generally, there's even an effort to mend fences at a political level. |
Unit military readiness today is about what it was under (President) Ronald Reagan but probably less than it was during the Gulf War, |
Unless the situation in Iraq improves, or unless we drastically enlarge the pool of possible recruits in some way ? for example, lowering academic standards for them, or even considering an extreme option like allowing foreigners to gain U.S. citizenship by serving ? one would have to expect continued tough slogging for the Army, |
We have had too many bases. We need to be more efficient. |
We may need somebody who knows how to talk with us, do business with us, but isn't, frankly, one of our best friends. |
We really don't know how ethnically cohesive they are and how much their loyalty is to the central government rather than their ethnic kinsmen. Their long-term political loyalties remain to be tested, although their technical skills are getting better. |
We will win, but we could lose a thousand or more people if things go badly. |
What is a problem is when you have no particular plan to pay off the debt. |
When you add up the different pieces, there's good news and bad news. The good news is: It's not a huge operation; maybe 50,000 people at maximum. The bad news is: It may not work any time soon. |
whether we're making any progress. |
While Republicans are taking the president on more these days, they don't want him to fail. |
You can make a serious strategic argument for removing [Saddam Hussein], |