WSJ

WSJ. Negroponte hits the claxon over Iraq. John
Negroponte, who arrived at his post in late June, described the dire
security situation in a lengthy cable sent last week to his superiors
at the U.S. State Department. The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, arguing
that the insurgency there has become more protracted than anticipated,
wants to shift more than $3 billion in U.S. aid away from
reconstruction projects and into efforts aimed at improving Iraqi
security, creating local jobs and boosting oil output, U.S. officials
said. More than $1.8 billion of the $3.37 billion would be used for
hiring, training and equipping more Iraqi security forces, including
45,000 additional Iraqi police, 16,000 national-guard troops and 16,000
border guards, according to a breakdown of the spending.
Unfortunately,
global guerrillas have learned the methodologies necessary to keep up
their pressure on Iraq's infrastructure, even in the face of improved
security. We are at least a year behind the powercurve in Iraq, and
falling farther behind.
[John Robb's Weblog]

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