Amb. Crocker, Bucking the Bureaucratic Trend, Calls for 'Strategic Patience' in Iraq

"As some of the regulars here may know, I've never been a major fan of Amb. Ryan Crocker (...or of Gen. David Petraeus, for that matter), but Crocker's statements today are very reasonable, and they represent a sharp break with the State Department's conventional wisdom on the Middle East. Crocker is asking the American public to think of what the mission in Iraq can achieve in 10-20 years. Problem is, apart from Senators McCain and Lieberman and a few others, no one seems to be thinking that far ahead.

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