Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

Cheney: U.S. Close To Meeting Goals In Iraq, (USA Today)…Wire reports, Jan 5, 2009
 WASHINGTON — Vice President Cheney said Sunday that the United States is accomplishing its aims in Iraq. Interviewed on CBS’ Face the Nation, Cheney offered a spirited defense of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, of which he was a top advocate.
“We [...]

US Seeks Answers From Russia On Missile Sales To Iranians, (Boston Globe)…Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press, Dec 23, 2008.
US officials said yesterday that they want answers from Russia on whether it is selling advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran, a move the United States insists could threaten American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush On His Record, (Wall Street Journal)…Kimberley A. Strassel, Dec 20, 2008, pg.13
As he sits at his mile-high desk, clad in his Air Force One crew jacket, George W. Bush is as he has ever been: upbeat, focused, confident in his past decisions and in the future.

On Iraq …
The action that will always most define [...]

Poll Finds Support For Obama’s War Views. (Washington Post)…Michael A. Fletcher and Jon Cohen
Americans are more upbeat about U.S. prospects in Iraq than at any time in the past five years, but nearly two-thirds continue to believe the war is not worth fighting and 70 percent say President-elect Barack Obama should fulfill his campaign promise [...]

Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders, (New York Times)…James Glanz and T. Christian Miller, Dec 13, 2008.
Poor planning, waste and deception led to $200 billion failure, report says
An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of [...]

U.S. Says Drop In Iraq Deaths Tied To Iranian Arms Cutback, (Los Angeles Times)…Julian E. Barnes
A marked decline in the number of explosive devices coming into Iraq from neighboring Iran has helped reduce the frequency of deadly attacks against U.S. service members, a top U.S. general said Thursday.

Milestone In Baghdad, (Washington Post)…Charles Krauthammer, Dec 5, 2008.
The barbarism in Mumbai and the economic crisis at home have largely overshadowed an otherwise singular event: the ratification of military and strategic cooperation agreements between Iraq and the United States.
They must not pass unnoted. They were certainly noted by Iran, which fought fiercely to undermine the [...]

Iraq Approves U.S. Security Pact As Violence Flares, (New York Times)…Campbell Robertson
Iraq’s three-person Presidency Council on Thursday approved the security agreement that calls for the withdrawal of American forces, taking the last necessary step for its official adoption.

Obama’s Iraq Inheritance (New York Times)…Thomas L. Friedman, Nov 30, 2008.
Here’s a story you don’t see very often. Iraq’s highest court told the Iraqi Parliament last Monday that it had no right to strip one of its members of immunity so he could be prosecuted for an alleged crime: visiting Israel for a seminar on [...]

Top Shiite Cleric In Iraq Raises Concerns About Security Pact, (Washington Post)…Sudarsan Raghavan and Saad Sarhan, Nov 30, 2008.
Iraq’s preeminent Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has expressed concern about the country’s security agreement with the United States, saying it gives the Americans the upper hand and does not do enough to protect Iraqi [...]