Get this done

Robert Fisk notes that the new Israeli Knesset contains 15 generals and 6 secret service agents. Out of 120 members.

Condi did something in Iraq that Rumsfeld, Cheney etc etc have never done: she spent the night. Like American tourists everywhere, she decided that made her more of an expert than the people who live there, informing every Iraqi political leader she met that “the Iraqi people are losing patience.” She knows this because there are cartoons (really, check the transcript, that’s what she says). And they’re not the only ones: “your international allies want to see this get done” and “the President [Bush, not Talabani] ... wants them to get this done,” which is a phrasing Iraqis will see as dismissive of the concerns and fears that have prevented “this” from “getting done.” And she said, and I’m not sure what this actually means, “The American people want to see Iraq succeed, but they want to see Iraq progress toward success.” She added that America has “put a lot of treasure – and I mean human treasure – on the line to try to give Iraq an opportunity for a democratic government” and that “given the sacrifice, people expect that process to continue”. Yes, it’s all about us.

Reading the transcript, it looks like she thinks the only stumbling bloc to a unity government is the choice of prime minister, not the fact that no one really wants a unity government. They could settle on a PM (not Jaafari) tomorrow, and spend three months arguing about who the minister of sport will be.

As to the withdrawal of US and British troops human treasure, “No, no. That didn’t come up.”