Is the "Khalilzad Cable", the full text of which was published by the WaPo today, the present war's equivalent of the Vietnam War's "Pentagon Papers"?
The "Khalilzad cable", which was sent from Viceroy Khalilzad to Secretary of State Condi Rice just "hours" before the surprise trip that Bush made to Baghdad on June 12, reveals how stunningly unsuccessful all the US's efforts to stabilize Iraq and build effective, pro-US new security forces there have been. Equally significantly, it also reveals the degree to which Zal Khalilzad, the US Viceroy in Baghdad, is aware of this situation-- despite all of Bush's earnest public avowals that things are going ahead very well in Iraq.
That's why it deserves to have the same impact within the US policy elite that the Pentagon Papers had in their day.
So okay, at the next press briefing at the White House or the State Department, let's hear some of those reporters asking the Prez, or Condi, or their flaks: "So really, how are things going in Baghdad? And do you judge that Ambassador Khalilzad is an experienced and well-informed judge of the situation there?"
Yeah, we'll see what kind of 'rug dance' Snow will do.
My judgment from all the above-- assuming the cable as leaked and published is genuine (and I assume the WaPo would have done much to authenticate it before they published it)-- is that things are even more precarious for the US position in Iraq than I had previously thought... It seems to me that Khalilzad and his staff there are hanging on by a hair. And what's more, he seems to understand this-- and to be eager to warn Condi about just how bad things are... And this, apparently even after he'd gotten the good news about the killing of Zarqawi and Maliki's completion of forming his government...
Editor & Publisher weighs in on this as well.
Scout Prime brings up "The Second Cable".
Let's keep our eyes on how this one plays out in days to come. I think things are maybe a lot worse in Iraq than even we cynics think they are.
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