During a press conference this afternoon, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley spun the National Intelligence Estimate’s key findings to support the president’s “surge” plan in Iraq.
As we reported earlier, the Key Judgments paint an extremely dire picture of the situation. In one key line, it says that “even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation in the time frame of this Estimate.”
That’s not as hopeless as it sounds, according to Hadley. All that means is that since Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed, “there is no alternative but to press them hard to do that reconciliation.”
“One of the things you should conclude from this NIE,” Hadley said, “is the best plan is to have this plan succeed.”