I’M NOT all that slick with metaphors, maybe that’s why I appreciate good ones. Gen. David Patraeus used a great one in an interview yesterday:
He described al Qaeda in Iraq as the “wolf closest to the sled,” because they carry out the most horrific attacks, causing the biggest loss of life. The group tries constantly to return Iraq to levels of sectarian violence that were so destructive this past winter, he said.
The whole interview is worth a look. Neither a glass-half-full, nor half-empty assessment, he does make it pretty clear that while the war is finally being won on the battlefield, the final outcome of the conflict will be determined by the Iraqis themselves.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2007 – The clock is ticking for American troop presence in Iraq, and if more time is needed, it will require more progress in the region, the commander of coalition troops there said today.
"If the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi people, the Iraqi political leaders can demonstrate that there should be hope for them making the most of the opportunity, that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are fighting to provide them, indeed there could be time put on the clock, kept on the clock to enable this endeavor to go forward,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said in an interview today with Soldiers Radio and Television’s Gail McCabe.
Results of the emergency political summit going on in Baghdad will be critical, he said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on Iraq’s top Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders to meet this week in an effort to stabilize what Petraeus referred to as “political crisis.”