Is Iraq's Government on the Verge of Collapse
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been publicly disappointed at Iraq's failure to achieve political reconciliation. Today, five more ministers quit, leaving no Sunnis in Prime Minister al-Maliki's cabinet. Is the government on the verge of collapse? We'll talk with Iraq's Ambassador to the UN, Iraq Study Group member Leon Panetta and others. Also, President Bush meets with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and, on Reporter's Notebook, how the costly war in Iraq may be endangering our national security.
Photo: Khalid Mohammed/Pool/Getty Images
Reporter's Notebook
Is the Cost of War Preventing Us from Being Safe at Home? ()
George Washington warned that the debts run up by "unavoidable wars" should not be charged to future generations. A recent history of how America finances war says that George Bush has failed to heed the advice of his predecessor. Another former general-turned-president is quoted in The Price of Liberty. Dwight Eisenhower said, "The current problem with defense spending is to figure how far you should go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without." The book's author is Robert Hormats, vice president of the financial giant Goldman Sachs.
Guests:
- Robert Hormats: Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs International
Main Topic
Is Iraq's Government on the Verge of Collapse ()
With the parliament off on a month-long vacation, five more Iraqi cabinet ministers quit today, the last of the Sunnis in a Shiite-dominated regime. The latest to leave the government of Nouri al-Maliki are loyal to former Prime Minister Ayad Allawai. Also today, suicide bomber killed at least 28 people, including 19 children, in Tal Afar, a religiously mixed city north of Baghdad. This comes on the heels of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' very public disappointment over the failure of political reconciliation. We hear about Iraqi politics and the government's inability to provide basic services, including water and power. Is it too late for the Iraq Study Group's recommendations? Should Iraq be divided into three separate entities?
Guests:
- Ned Parker: Baghdad Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, @nedparkerlat
- Feisal Istrabadi: Iraq's Ambassador to the United Nations
- Juan Cole: Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Michigan
- Peter Galbraith: Senior Diplomatic Fellow, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
- Leon Panetta: Member of the Iraq Study Group
Links:
Making News
Bush-Karzai Summit Glosses over Tough Questions on Pakistan ()
After two days of talks at Camp David, President Bush appeared with Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai today. Bush was asked about neighboring Pakistan: if he had "actionable intelligence" about the location of terrorist leaders, would he take action without asking President Pervez Mursharraf's permission? Sheryl Gay Stolberg is White House correspondent for the New York Times.
Guests:
- Sheryl Gay Stolberg: White House Reporter for the New York Times, @sherylstolberg
Links:
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