Ambassador Hill to Iraq officials: 'Get this show on the road'

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Source: Washington Post

BAGHDAD -- U.S. Ambassador Christopher R. Hill on Monday expressed deep concern about how slowly Iraqi officials have moved to seat a new government, saying they need to "get this show on the road."

American officials see the formation of a new government and a smooth transition of power as crucial precursors to the scheduled drawdown of all but 50,000 troops by the end of August. Hill's unusually blunt comments reflect growing U.S. anxiety with a process that has been slowed by a host of factors, including the close results from the March 7 parliamentary election, a recently ordered manual recount of the roughly 2.4 million ballots cast in Baghdad and ongoing efforts to disqualify candidates for alleged sympathies to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

"Obviously one would like to see them pick up the pace," Hill told journalists at the U.S. Embassy on Monday evening. "While we always knew this was going to be a tough period, we are approaching almost seven weeks" since the vote.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042602769.html

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Will the Pentagon withdrawal ALL of our combat forces without a government in place? They have four months to get their act together, yet the violence and divisions worsen each week.