A Tale of Two Statesmen

Former GOP Secretary of State Henry Kissinger:

But on Sunday he said a military victory in Iraq was no longer in the cards.

"If you mean by clear military victory an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he said.

And British Prime Minister Tony Blair:

Frost suggested that the West's intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster."

Blair replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy -- al Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other -- to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

Opposition MPs seized on the comment as evidence that Blair has finally accepted that his strategy in the Middle Eastern state had failed.

Message controls is more important now then ever. Blair claims it was a mere slip of the tongue, but at the very least it was a fruedian. The Bush Admin has to figure out a way to begin a 'new direction' in Iraq, while still staying the course. It will be an intersting juggling act.

Flash