Word: crockers
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...being devised by the Petraeus staff. But Bush is a stubborn man. He doesn't want to appear to be forced into a draw-down, and especially not by members of his own party. He wants to be able to make his announcement after Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testify in September to the positive al-Qaeda developments. "We could actually use the announcement of a long draw-down," an Administration official told me. "Something that won't seem like we're cutting and running but will let the Iraqis know that we're leaving and they have...
...between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his most powerful Shi'ite supporter, Muqtada al-Sadr. "In just a few months, al-Maliki has moved from 'You can't go after al-Sadr' to seeing [al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia] as a serious threat to his power," Ambassador Crocker told me in Baghdad a few weeks ago. Both al-Maliki and al-Sadr are plotting and scheming to oust each other. The Sadrist parliamentary bloc is planning to force a no-confidence vote on al-Maliki that could conceivably bring down the government. Given the amount of time...
...this doesn't mean, of course, that Maliki's men aren't nervous. Even those closest to him are wondering if some of those rumors might be true. At a recent meeting in the Green Zone, an aide to Maliki was nervously joking with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. "I hear we're gone on September 30th," he told Crocker. But Crocker joked back with a zinger, "What's wrong with Sept. 15th?" That's the day when General David Petraeus and Crocker are slated to report to Congress on the effectiveness of the troop surge. The Administration is then expected...
...offensive of the war. "We couldn't really call it what it is, Operation Last Chance," says a senior military official. There is widespread awareness among the military and diplomatic players in Baghdad that, with patience dwindling in Washington, they have only until September - when Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are due to give Congress a progress report - to show significant gains in taming the jihadist insurgency and in arresting the country's descent into civil war. Phantom Thunder is an effort to dislodge al-Qaeda from its bases of operation in the suburban belts north and south of Baghdad...
...Regardless of the tensions that overshadow next week's U.S.-Iran parley, there's no question that each side stands to benefit from some kind of a deal. The new Iraq strategy developed by General David Petraeus, the American commander, and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker stresses political accomodation inside Iraq. That is based on their judgment that neither the Iraqi insurgents nor the powerful Shi'ite militias can be readily defeated by the U.S. on the battlefield. Iran's active cooperation, or at least tacit support, appears crucial to that strategy. As for Iran, its leaders have said they would...