Within a day of remarks by the commander of the Multinational Force Iraq, US Army Gen. George Casey Jr., and US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, that said Iraqi leaders had agreed to a timetable, the new Iraqi government evinced displeasure with being held to any such timeline. In fact, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the next day that the operative words were “benchmarks” or “targets” and disclaimed specific timelines. Now, it appears that everyone is on the same page. A joint Washington-Baghdad statement (dated Oct. 28) talks about three common goals, all centering on “accelerating the pace” of turnover to Iraq. Another joint statement (dated Oct. 27), penned by Khalilzad and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, acknowledged “the issues that must be resolved with timelines for [the Iraqi government] to take positive steps forward.”
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
