Political Quotes

“That is absolutely true and important. Not only that, Prime Minister al-Maliki made the decision to employ those troops in Basra, to take it into his own hands, and that was a huge move, because before he was afraid to confront the Jaish al-Mahdi and those insurgents. Not only that, Muqtada al-Sadr was partly responsible for helping position Maliki in as prime minister, and before he refused to take action against them when they are were doing unlawful activities. For him to take that step was large. It was huge. And even though operationally it didn't go as smoothly as we hoped, it was a big step for them to go forward to do this, and that is a sign that things have changed. And we are seeing a change at the central level as well as what has been accomplished at the local level. As those two efforts merge, we will see a stable Iraq.”