3 years into war, U.S. envoy cuts to the truth in Iraq
Three years after the United States invaded Iraq — the anniversary is this weekend — some healthy realism appears to be creeping into the American assessment of the war, if not yet into the rhetoric from Washington. In three speeches this week, President Bush is again casting Iraq as a glass half-full. Yes, there is violence and the threat of civil war, he said in his first speech Monday, but Iraqi forces are gaining the strength to deal with it as U.S. troops prepare to draw down. Bush is trying to build much-needed support for a war that, in a new poll, 57% say was a mistake.
But in Iraq, the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, is telling the story in more somber tones that reflect the broader reality. The Iraq invasion, Khalilzad says, opened up a "Pandora's box" of sectarian conflicts, which could lead to a regional war and the rise of religious extremists who "would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play." All it would take would be another devastating attack on a holy site. The need is to get the international community involved in pressuring Iraq's groups with every tool available. Khalilzad (and Ted Kennedy) favors a conference, which has not been given a serious push.
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