Anthony Cordesman
Anthony Cordesman
Anthony H. Cordesmanholds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studiesand is a national security analyst on a number of global conflicts...
broader essential
It's an essential part of the broader strategy.
arrogance bet bump call daughters fools force lives perfectly sons speed
And to be perfectly blunt, I think only fools would bet the lives of other men's sons and daughters on their own arrogance and call this force a cakewalk or a speed bump or something that you can dismiss.
along concerns ethnic fall large lines ways
It's going to be 'Let's Make a Deal. The important thing in some ways was that there was a large vote. The concerns that it would fall along ethnic and sectarian lines were validated.
create divisions ethnic forces integrate national people scarcely simply within
These are scarcely people you want to integrate into a national force. This would simply create sectarian or ethnic forces or divisions within the forces that already exist.
holds purely spring together
It's 50-50 this thing holds together through the spring of 2006. But that is purely a guess.
almost along creeping ethnic growing iraq loss process steady
It's almost a creeping polarization of Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines, We see a slow, steady loss of confidence, a growing process of distrust.
allies america defeat easy face jaws problems risks
America and its allies face many risks and problems in Iraq, but it is all too easy to snatch defeat from the jaws of uncertainty.
begun care focus gives impression realize
They have begun to realize that when you focus only on the U.S. it gives the impression that the U.S. doesn't care about Iraqis.
central government limits matter
The Yemeni central government has done what it can, but it is very weak. It is not a matter of the government not trying. But there are limits to it can do.
allow capable iraq leading minister prime question step unity
This is the first step to allow Iraq to have a unity government, but it's only a first step. The question is, will the new prime minister be capable of leading the country?
breed further needs nonsense soon stop
The (United States) needs to stop issuing such nonsense as soon as possible. They have so little credibility that they can breed nothing but further distrust.
army direct facts force key manpower spin total
There's so much spin in these numbers. A lot of facts get disguised. . . . Total manpower is meaningless. The army is the key force in direct combat.
battle cannot desirable eliminate fighting fights-and-fighting forces iraqi key measure space
How much of the battle space can the Iraqi forces take over, and who is actually doing the fighting - those are the key measurements. The measure cannot be the elimination of the insurgency, as desirable as that would be. You cannot eliminate all of the bombings.
bombs charges destroy develop firing insurgents lightly methods mines rounds several shaped stacked using watching
You're watching the insurgents develop more sophisticated methods of attack, and more sophisticated IEDs. They're using shaped charges and anti-tank mines stacked together. They're using 500-pound bombs that can destroy any armored vehicle. They're using these so-called swarming attacks, firing several RPG rounds at one lightly armored vehicle.