Barry McCaffrey visits Iraq, sees some improvement, and assesses that “we can still achieve our objective” of “a stable Iraq, at peace with its neighbors, not producing weapons of mass destruction, and fully committed to a law-based government.” But he thinks the job has to be done in the 36 months of “substantial troop presence” remaining before domestic US politics finally forces a withdrawal. Of course, back in July 2005 McCaffrey argued that “momentum is now clearly with the Iraqi Government and the Coalition Security Forces,” and we all know how that worked out. [Via WaPo] --Michael Crowley