Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S: September is “too soon” to judge the "surge"

[sabra]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/07/17/iraq-envoy-pleads-for-time/


Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S., Samir Sumaidaie, is weighing in on the debate over when and how U.S. troops should pull out of Iraq. His message: Give the U.S. troop surge more time.

...

The ambassador said September is “too soon” to judge whether the U.S. troop increase is working. “By then we will only get an inkling of its potential,” he told reporters over breakfast at Iraq’s glimmering new digs along Washington’s Embassy Row, just a few blocks up Massachusetts Avenue from the hilltop home of Vice President Dick Cheney.

“We hope (the surge) will be maintained until we can consolidate our position,” he said. “We want it to continue until we see real fruit.”

Sumaidaie, who has served in Washington since July 2006, said that there are now flickers of real progress in parts of Baghdad, and across the vast Anbar province. “The tragedy will be after four years of learning and mistakes, just as we are starting to get a grip on the situation,…the rug would be pulled from under our feet. That would be tragic,” he said.

Switching metaphors, he compared Iraq’s leaders to jugglers who will be severely handicapped if the U.S. pulls its troops out precipitously. “They are juggling so many balls, and they are being handed more balls, and suddenly, one hand would be taken away.”

[Canuckistanian]

1. Good boy, good boy. Here's a biscuit.

Just stay off the furniture.

[zonmoy]

2. He sure isn't getting his orders from his own government or people

so we should assume that he was ordered to say that by the bush crime family.

[kenny blankenship]

3. In other words: it's not going too well