Perhaps the first sign of public wavering on the US government's 'commitment' to stabalizing Iraq today.. 34 American soldiers have been killed since the end of the war, so to speak, on MayDay.. total toll is 148 to this time, higher than the entire American human cost in 1991..
Therein a fundamental problem with American foreign policy. It can be agressive, but it doesn't like continuing damage. The public recalls VietNam in the US, with something akin to loathing and fear. The one incident in modern history, when the might of the American War Machine couldn't defeat 'foreigners'. It's a pill that still sticks in the collective craw.
Rapid change is what's called for, according to these advisors. But then, it's the insistence on immediate results, and concentration on the short term, that will eventually make this a black spot in American history.
It's the fast food, fast cars, fast wars, immediate success syndrome that will bring the States down.
Just as it's the patience and planning which involves decades of unfolding intrigue that will have the Middle East still the Middle East, long after the last Western soldier has gone home.
A note at the passing of Dr. David Kelly. A mid-eastern analyst for the Ministry of Defence, who after testifying at a Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, was today found murdered near his home, in a small village in Oxfordshire.
Dr. Kelly had been at the center of the 'Iraq Dossier' controvercy, and had told the Committee he had not provided anyone with documents, suggesting a dossier on Iraq had been 'sexed-up'...
Evidently there remained some doubt in the minds of a few at Whitehall..