If the Shiite population turns against the United States and you see a large-scale resistance by the Shiites against the United States, this reconstruction effort is doomed.

In both cases, the United States has come into it as an outside power, and increasingly is being seen by one group as the partisan of another.

It would be like a major bomb going off outside of St. Peter’s [Basilica] in Rome, or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, for Christians.

They’re finally going in and trying to pacify these parts of Iraq that were left lawless and left in the hands of the opposition figures for twelve months. This was an enormous mistake.

It sends them the message that if you try to help the Americans re-build the country, no good will come of it, only bad. … Obviously, any would-be Iraqi police officer or other participant in...

They are not the highest priority. And as a result the real resources that are available in Iraq need to be focused on things like getting this new Iraqi government established, dealing with security and...

The inspections route is the wrong route.

These are numbers that the United States needs to concentrate on far more intensely.

Clearly the similarities are very frightening.