By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JEFF ZELENY
Published: January 8, 2007
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — President Bush’s new Iraq policy will establish a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday.
Among these “benchmarks” are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government’s policy toward former Baath Party members, the officials said.
As the policy is being debated in Washington, the new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that his plan was to send additional American troops, expected to be part of the policy change, into Baghdad’s toughest neighborhoods, and that under the new strategy it may take another “two or three years” to gain the upper hand in the war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/world/middleeast/08strategy.html?hp&ex=1168318800&en=076ca8b44e7233b1&ei=5094&partner=homepageGuess it will all depend on the "patience" and "resolve" of the American people now (never mind we still won't be talking to Iran and Syria, even as Iranian weapons are killing American soldiers in Iraq)...buck up, folks!.
:sarcasm: