Cordesman Speaking Out

VOA -

A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research and analysis organization, paints a bleak picture of the war in Iraq, and says Americans will have to accept what it calls a high-risk, high-cost strategy in order to reverse the country's slide into civil war. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel reports from Washington.

The report's author, Anthony Cordesman, a senior military and national security analyst with the center, is a former director of intelligence assessment for the secretary of defense.

Cordesman, who has made numerous trips to Iraq, says there is no doubt the conflict there has become a civil war, and there is a critical risk the violence will get much worse in the coming months.

Cordesman says while some progress has been made in the training of Iraqi security forces, they and the central government in Baghdad are still too weak to maintain control.

David Corn :

Cordesman to Bush Administration: "Stop Lying"
Once again, Anthony Cordesman--the hawkish military analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies--has accused the Bush administration of misleading the public about the harsh realities of Iraq. Every few months, he produces a report that socks it to the White House and the Pentagon. And he has new one out today.

Links from cursor.org. I previously reported on him here when writing about 600,000 additional dead Iraqis.

In other Iraq news - Iraq's oil production falling due to civil war? From the press conference in Jordan that was what Bush was really after - some things to salvage the oil deals. And David Corn reports the Baker report is going to adopt all the Democratic Iraq strategy, the one released to media silence last Spring.

Tags: Anthony Cordesman, Iraq