So, NOW What the Hell are We Doing Here?
Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power
By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, October 8, 2007; A01
BAGHDAD -- For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.
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It was about Saddam until it wasn't. Then it was about al-Qaeda until it wasn't. When it wasn't about 9-11 and wasn't about nation-building, it became about holding the gangsters away from each other until they could form a government. Maybe even a democratic government, although we'd have settled for any government that could hold our coat for us as we beat a speedy exit.
Now it isn't about that either, which will mean yet another wasn't.
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the st…