This is worrisome. It comes from a McClatchy report on the likely selection of Ryan Crocker as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, replacing Zalmay Khalilzad:
Crocker “must answer: Whose side are we on?” said a State Department official in Washington, who asked not to be identified because the official isn’t authorized to speak to the news media. “It is going to be extremely difficult.”
We keep hearing about a faction within the Administration that wants to choose sides (i.e., back the Shiite majority) in order, presumably, to bring the civil war to a quicker and more decisive end so that we can declare victory and withdraw. I say presumably because there are so many problems with this approach that trying to tease out its proponents’ objectives almost misses the point.
But here’s the thing. One might expect that faction to reside at the Pentagon or NSC–but the State Department? That can’t be a good sign.
