IRAQ: On The Precipice of Failure?

Anthony Cordesman (r), CSIS Burke Chair in Strategy, Jon Alterman (l), director of the CSIS Middle East Program, and Bathsheba Crocker (center), codirector of the CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, assessed the impact of the Iraqi insurgency on U.S. military and rebuilding strategy and Middle East politics at a forum hosted by CSIS on April 14. "Admitting that the situation is uncertain scarcely means that all of the possible problems will take their most serious form, or that this may not be just one more period of crisis in one of the most serious tasks the United States has taken on in its history," Cordesman said. "Much still depends on the skill with which the United States and its allies execute the transfer of sovereignty, the aid program, and the political aspects of military operations over the next days, weeks and months."