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To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2731)	4/10/2006 4:57:02 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 14758

April 10, 2006 \| Too late, the urgency of the crisis in Iraq, and the sheer ugliness of its civil war, seems finally to be dawning on the Bush administration. As usual, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and their stalwart secretaries of state and defense, are Johnny-come-latelies in their ability to understand how far gone Iraq is. Perhaps, as has been the case in the past, that is because they continue flagrantly to disregard what they are told by analysts in the U.S. intelligence community. Before, during and after the invasion of Iraq, with a rising sense of alarm, the CIA, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and other agencies warned the Bush-Cheney team that the destruction of Iraq's central government could tumble the country into a civil war. In 2004, of course, the president famously dismissed such CIA warnings as "just a guess." Well, guess what, Mr. President? It's civil war. And it isn't pretty. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a leading know-nothing on Iraq -- it was her utter ignorance of the Middle East as national security advisor through 2004 that allowed the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal to get away with so much -- jetted to Baghdad in a hurry over the weekend. She dragged along Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, gallantly sleeping on the floor of her own plane while giving him her bed. No doubt, the Rice-Straw voyage to Britain's old colonial stomping grounds in Baghdad was the result of a panicky summons from the U.S. ambassador-cum-proconsul in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who seems to be at his wit's end in trying to solve the Rubik's Cube of Iraq's sectarian and ethnic political puzzle. Ambassador Khalilzad spent most of 2005 cozying up to the religious Shiites of Iraq while thundering about the threat of a Sunni-led insurgency. Late last year, however, he began -- imperceptibly at first, then with some speed -- maneuvering to switch sides: first pledging to talk to the former Baathists and to Sunni resistance groups, then ordering U.S. troops to attack the most heinous outcroppings of the Shiite fundamentalists' terror-torture-and-militias apparatus. Finally, in advance of summoning Rice, the ambassador threw down the gauntlet once and for all. Led by Khalilzad, the United States has definitively broken with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the hopelessly incompetent religious fanatic that Washington helped bring back to Iraq in the first place, installing him as puppet prime minister of the interim government created (after months of back stabbing and deal making) in the aftermath of the January 2005 elections. Khalilzad seems to have discovered what just about everyone else in Iraq already knew: that Jaafari is closely allied to the Iranians." salon.com

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2731)	4/10/2006 4:57:35 PM
From: Bill	Respond to of 14758

By THOM SHANKER, NEW YORK TIMES skip...

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2731)	4/10/2006 4:58:22 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

I saw that. A pretty interesting story. "Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, the highest in history, after completing their five-year obligation." highest in history- that's going some

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2731)	4/10/2006 5:03:32 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

Yeah, saw this morning.... It slams Hannitty back in his hole..he claimed reenlistments running above target. Of course, he didn't mention that the targets were lowered...

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2731)	4/10/2006 5:07:19 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 14758

It's interesting: usmilitary.com "The number of lieutenants and captains leaving had dropped after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But it has increased almost to pre-9/11 levels because of mounting concerns about repeat tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military analysts such as Bob Scales, a retired Army major general and former commandant of the Army War College. The percentage of young West Point graduates leaving the Army rose from 6.5% in 2003 to 10.7% in fiscal 2005, which ended Sept. 30. That compares with 11.6% who left in 2000. The number of scholarship ROTC graduates who left rose from 5.1% in 2003 to 9.3% in 2005. In 2000, 10.6% left. Most of the young officers who leave exit as soon as their minimum commitment is up; a minority leave because of injuries or other reasons." Sounds like the problem is getting worse yoy.