Tuesday, December 07, 2004
A cordial note from Juan Cole to John Negroponte on Negroponte's insistence on hedging the conclusions of a CIA report that alleged "Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon":
Uh, John, when you have conquered a country and ruled it for 18 months, and when you have 140,000 plus troops on the ground, and when you have to forbid your embassy staff to take the 10-mile-long road from the capital to the airport because their lives cannot be assured on it-- then, John, things are deteriorating and may not get better soon. Get used to it.
