Just a few days after writing about the progress he saw in Iraq, Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon claims that if the situation remains as it is currently, he could not “write another Op-Ed” declaring success:
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. O’Hanlon said the article was intended to point out that the security situation was currently far better than it was in 2006. What the American military cannot solve, he said, are problems caused by the inability of Iraqis to forge political solutions. “Ultimately, politics trumps all else,” Mr. O’Hanlon said. “If the political stalemate goes on, even if the military progress continued, I don’t see how I could write another Op-Ed saying the same thing.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/02/ohanlon-begins-backpedaling-from-op-ed/.......from Juan Cole......
There is no longer a national unity government.
Al-Maliki has not only made no progress toward national reconciliation with the Sunni Arabs, he has now lost the few Sunni Arabs willing to cooperate closely with him.
The 'benchmarks' not only have not been met, but the situation is going backwards from where it was in January.
http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/142-dead-in-heat-wave-of-violence-5_02.html
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