From the NY Post today, John Podhoretz on the likely replacement of General George Casey:

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway, told the Times that the president went to the Pentagon a few weeks ago and said flatly, “What I want to hear from you is how we’re going to win, not how we’re going to leave.”

And that’s basically why, according to the Times, “Bush seems all but certain not only to reverse the strategy that Gen. Casey championed, but also to accelerate the general’s departure from Iraq.”

…

The Times story is important as a marker of the president’s intention. He has come to understand that victory requires a general whose primary aim is victory. And that general isn’t George Casey - an American hero who simply got it wrong.

And from the NY Sun, news that Iran has apparently not only been backing Shiite extremists in Iraq, but also Sunnis, in an attempt to foment chaos while keeping a finger in each pie:

Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.

The news that American forces had captured Iranians in Iraq was widely reported last month, but less well known is that the Iranians were carrying documents that offered Americans insight into Iranian activities in Iraq.

An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms “that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups.” The source was careful to stress that the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, and said the documents rather show how the Quds Force — the arm of Iran’s revolutionary guard that supports Shiite Hezbollah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads — is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.

Another American official who has seen the summaries of the reporting affiliated with the arrests said it comprised a “smoking gun.” “We found plans for attacks, phone numbers affiliated with Sunni bad guys, a lot of things that filled in the blanks on what these guys are up to,” the official said.

…

Rough translations of the Iranian assessment and strategy, as well as a summary of the intelligence haul, have been widely distributed throughout the policy community and are likely to influence the Iraq speech President Bush is expected to deliver in the coming days regarding the way forward for the war, according to two Bush administration officials.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Welcome to Modern Times
• Axis of Evil Revisited
• Cat’s in the Well?