We cannot win militarily in Iraq, says Dr. Kissinger, and his gloomy assessment is met by total silence so far in the media and the blogosphere. Oh well.

For the record, here’s what he said:

“A ‘military victory’ in the sense of total control over the whole territory, imposed on the entire population, is not possible,” Kissinger told The Associated Press in Tokyo …

The faceless, ubiquitous nature of Iraq’s insurgency, as well as the religious divide between Shiite and Sunni rivals, makes negotiating peace more complex, he said. …

Kissinger said the best way forward is to reconcile the differences between Iraq’s warring sects with help from other countries. He applauded efforts to host an international conference bringing together the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Iraq’s neighbors — including Iran, Washington’s longtime rival in the region.

He’s also got some advice for politicians:

Kissinger said that fighting in Iraq is likely to continue for years, and that America’s national interest requires an end to partisan bickering at home over war policy.

“The role of America in the world cannot be defined by our internal partisan quarrels,” he said. “All the leaders, both Republican and Democratic, have to remember that it will go on for several more years and find some basis for common action.”

Not too likely, is it?

Though I gotta say that the notoriously unapologetic Hillary Rodham Clinton—who famously has said that she’s got the “responsibility gene“—is hewing most closely to telling it like it is to the American people. Where it will get her is another question entirely…

Dear ETP:

Often, to our great amusement, you highlight the high jinks of Mr. Stewart, Mr. Colbert, and any other sharpshooter who sets his (or, extremely rarely, her) sights on the hated Republicans.

One night a year, the hated Republicans get to shoot back and, most graciously, the press takes as good as it gives 365 days a year.

Lighten up. It’s not as if there’s a war on or anything.

yours as ever,

Hepzeeba

On this morning’s television screens, for the fourth successive day, we watch kidnapped British sailors being humilated by their Iranian captors. Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind is surely right to say that more should be done to put pressure on the regime in Tehran. His suggestion of a suspension of EU nations’ export credits to Iran seems an immediate and minimum necessary response. For the longer-term, however, what this current crisis exposes is the decline of Britain as a serious power.

from BritainandAmerica.com