http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32 2007-07-31T14:18:37Z http://www.circavie.com/ http://www.circavie.com/file/americanprogress/photos/d0589576-2ee7-5480-a6c2-9a0dde32341e_t http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32 http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/26409 "President Bush said Friday that the stepped-up violence in Baghdad and Basra represents a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq" as well as a key test for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki." -- Chicago Tribune ed800a49-4fdd-5164-9e16-362eee5eef59 2008-04-17T15:37:59Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/26188 We believe that, after a 75 percent reduction in the rate of violence in Iraq over the past year, and significant accomplishments by Iraqi leaders on at least half a dozen key political matters, there is a reasonable prospect of achieving a sustainable stability there within the next few years. That said, continued progress will be far more likely if major reductions in U.S. forces beyond those currently planned await early 2010." -- Ann Gildroy and Michael O'Hanlon writing in the Washington Post 7c8ee03e-1966-5472-8c2b-a6fc6554aca9 2008-04-16T16:20:31Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/25889 "After a questioner told McCain that President Bush has talked about staying in Iraq for 50 years, McCain said, 'make it a hundred.' "He continued: 'We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.'" --CBS News, the Horserace 60a340b7-d3cc-522c-ab4c-058f461bb4d7 2008-04-14T15:07:55Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/25887 "Success -- the establishment of peaceful, democratic state, the defeat of terrorism -- this success is within reach," said Sen. McCain. "Congress must not choose to lose in Iraq. We must choose to succeed." -- Sen. McCain, as quoted on CNN.com, at the Petraeus-Crocker hearing in the Senate 6c1ecc2f-c1d0-58ae-8d10-0a95c1f96298 2008-04-14T14:53:17Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/25886 "Petraeus is expected to call for halting troop reductions...for six months." --The Washington Times e827ce0d-a595-54dc-9f96-8ef459d648c7 2008-04-14T14:50:33Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/25885 "I don't doubt that six months from now, we'll look back and they shall have been passed," Negroponte told the Washington Post in regard to laws marking political progress in front of the Iraqi parliament. d22bced6-eaf9-59b2-86ce-6038a6060c57 2008-04-14T14:45:04Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/25884 "...the plan is basically to keep pushing the Iraqi government for a plan but U.S. objectives have been moved from a somewhat utopian view of Iraqi democracy to stabilization. I think the change in administrations in Washington will find at least 100,000 troops still in Iraq. Rather than pull out of Baghdad, the capital will probably be the last place they leave in terms of combat forces since it's the epicenter of sectarian violence. I just got back from there yesterday, and U.S. officers acknowledge that it's only the fact that they're "sitting" on Baghdad neighborhoods that has caused violence to decrease. The political progress that might lead to longer term stabilization just hasn't happened and Iraqi security forces aren't ready to take over. The next six months will be critical." d324aee8-68cb-52bb-919a-c5c746d93cbe 2008-04-14T14:32:02Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/25882 "For five years Washington-based officials and pundits have repeatedly made the mistake of predicting that the next six or 12 months in Iraq would be decisive. Under the hardheaded leadership of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker such talk has been banned: "Nobody says anything about turning a corner, seeing lights at the end of tunnels, any of those phrases," Petraeus recently declared. Yet, for once, saying that the next six to 12 months will win or lose the war just might be right." -- Jackson Diehl, Washington Post Deputy Editorial Page Editor 1acdce83-0ea7-58fa-90e2-b08c149a1029 2008-04-14T14:01:56Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/24936 Cheney told ABC News: "There's no reason now to decide what the force level is going to be in December of '08." The criterion, he said, "is how do we make certain we succeed in Iraq? It may be that we can make judgments about reductions down the road. . . . But I don't think [Bush] is likely to want to try to say now what the force level ought to be at the end of the year." c5925566-2f27-5034-9c97-5bb5fb667fe9 2008-04-08T18:11:30Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/cb8c73c9-fed2-598b-9882-5a3fe605da32/24931 "We think we won’t know that we’ve reached a turning point until we’re six months past it. We have repeatedly said that there is no lights at the end of the tunnel that we’re seeing. We’re certainly not dancing in the end zone or anything like that. " b7abb10c-3fb5-55aa-b24e-126ce57cb96e 2008-04-08T18:08:19Z