Time is short for Iraq to stabilize, U.S. envoy warns

[ECH1969]

Iraq's new government has three to six months to bring more stability to the country, or it could collapse, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Wednesday. "Unless there is increased security ... a lessening of and containing of sectarian violence, this government will face huge challenges that might pose a problem for the viability and success of the political process," Zalmay Khalilzad said from Baghdad.

Khalilzad said the new, U.S.-backed government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki understands the challenge presented by increased fighting among Iraq's factions and militias.

The ambassador spoke in a telephone interview shortly after al-Maliki declared a state of emergency in the southern city of Basra, where Shiite militias and tribal gangs have been battling in the streets. "The next three to six months will be critical in terms of this government's image and impact on the Iraqi people," he said.

Under a compromise reached last year to try to win Sunni Arab support for Iraq's new constitution, the government now has four months to consider changes to the constitution and two more months to hold a referendum on any amendments.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-05-31-khalilzad-iraq_x.htm

[iconoclastic cat]

1. And I'll tell you exactly how all involved will fuck this up:

The Iraqi "government" and the U.S. military leadership will attempt to take the advice of some of the tribal leaders, i.e. kill a bunch of people to show them who's in charge. Just watch.

[Kagemusha]

2. I figure they'll decide Moqtada al-Sadr is the ideal target for that.

We'll see...

[teryang]

3. It could collapse?

It isn't collapsing - we deliberately broke it.

[life_long_dem]

4. There is a good article in Newsweek magazine this week.

What We Need to Get Right
If the new prime minister fails, Moqtada al-Sadr will become the most powerful man in Iraq.
By Fareed Zakaria

I'm glad that the president has finally admitted to some mistakes in Iraq. But what worries me is that he still seems to be persisting in one important error. In his press conference last week, the only concrete plan he outlined to move forward—on a path out of Iraq—was a better-functioning Iraqi Army and police force. In this respect Bush is hardly alone. Many who criticize him on the right and left say that the training of Iraqi troops is happening too slowly, or that we need more American troops, or that we should flood the city of Baghdad with forces to stabilize it. But all of these solutions are technocratic and military, while the problem in Iraq is fundamentally political. Until we fully recognize this, doing more of the same will accomplish little.

more:http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/060506.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. There isn't a clock or a calendar long enough to stabilize Iraq.

[struggle4progress]

6. This might be exactly what the neocons hoped to accomplish:

a lawless, destabilized country providing an excuse for indefinite US presence ..

[demo dutch]

12. Yes, but will the American public put up with this crap?

[Amonester]

7. Time ran out to stabilize Iraq since the very first day BU$H

willfully, and criminally decided to destabilize it.

Bring the boys and girls back home before it's too late FOR THEM!

[acmavm]

8. Zalmay Khalilzad is either totally detached from reality or one big

smartass jokester. Any way you look at it, the wheels have already come off the trolley.

[MadMaddie]

9. Do you realize that we are starting to match stats from Vietnam

71 reporters have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan...that is more than Vietnam....

This is just the start....if we do not get our troops out we will be looking at another Veterans Memorial Wall....

[cliss]

10. 3 to 6 months......

Would that be about the same time as the US elections in November?

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. It's time to give it back to Saddam & say "We didn't mean it".