[xm177e2]

Much of the negative press, Chalabi argues, is due to translators who have their own anti-American agendas and give American and other reporters their version of what is going on rather than what the Iraqis being interviewed are saying.

I've seen in other places that the translators are often ex-Ba'athists or at least they were well-off before the war.

[Free Vulcan]

Amazing that anyone dared to print this.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT

[No Truce With Kings]

Many of these things might have happened earlier had planning not been conducted on two tracks, by the State Department and the Defense Department, until George W. Bush ordered January 20 that Defense would be in charge. State planners had envisioned a very different process, one which would not have put Iraq on the track toward democracy and the rule of law. Fortunately, Defense has been able to do that, with critical help from Chalabi and other Iraqis who share those goals.

All the whining comes from State. And the US Military -- unlike most of the rest of the world's militaries -- has a tradition of cherishing the freedoms that must be temporarily surrendered while in the military. Eisenhower and Schwartzkopf have a greater empathy for freedom than Adile Stephenson or Clinton.