1 I know what you're thinking: Iran?

2 Oh wait! You were thinking China, weren't you?

3 actually, from the context, it sounded like he was looking at us.

4 I bet they are the same foreigners John Kerry met with during the election.

5 "it sounded like he was looking at us." D'oh! That actually makes more sense. In that case, Rumsfeld and Rice would be my guesses.

6 If recent history is any clue -- France, Germany and Russia have had their dirty little paws all over many of the parties that are trying to build the new government. They still think they can get back to the way things were before OIF. But, since it is a WaPo article, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. al-Rubaie's comments were "edited" to better make "his" point.

7 After catching bits and pieces of the debate in the House over a motion trying to determine when to bring the troops home from Iraq, it occurred to me that we are all missing the simple solution. Put the republican hawks in charge of determining when to bring the troops home but require that they each spend 2 weeks out of every month IN Iraq until they decide it is time to end their personal occupation along with the troops. Furthermore, if we really want to do this right, we include the President and the Vice President on the panel determining the withdrawal date for themselves and our troops. Oh, yes. And the committee setting the withdrawal date should be limited to the accommodations, meals and support equivalent to that of a lieutenant in the services. I guarantee we will get an answer quickly. God, we also might balance the budget and eliminate pork in their absence.

8 Children all rebel at some point. It doesn't mean that they don't love their parents. It means that they are individualizing, and that's a good thing. We want them to flex their muscles and take charge.

9 Annika, your intuition seems the most likely to me, as this fit in with "The New American Century" MO. It makes one wonder what kind of interference (and in which areas) was he talking about. The next step: will the Administration stop interfering?

10 Okay, from his context, it does sound like he's talking about someone in the administration (when he refers to a culture of dependency as a possible consequence of such meddling). I don't think he means Bush, and I don't picture Rice or Rummy micromanaging the Iraqi govt. That leaves who...?

11 Wild speculation, but it could be a highly placed surrogate of Rumsfeld or Cheney (since most important positions in the Adminstration are Cheney loyalists).

12 "God, we also might balance the budget and eliminate pork in their absence." Without this last sentence, I would have assumed that Messman was a typical hippie liberal shithead, but that might not be the case. So, is Robert a paleo-con or a Libertarian?