I—my guess is next four to six months are crucial. If Maliki’s government cannot gain the allegiance of their security forces, cannot find some way to mute the power of the militias—which are, I might add, are—you know, we start talking as if there were two or three militias and one Sunni insurgency. In fact, it’s now splintering. There’s as many as 23 separate militias in Baghdad alone. So the Maliki government’s under the gun, and I think the president’s visit on, on Monday is going to be a very crucial dialogue between the two of them. They have to govern or we can’t sustain a counterinsurgency campaign in the urban areas of Iraq.
Senator Box Turtle, 6 months ago:
CORNYN: I think General Abizaid had it about right. He said he thinks we have about another four to six months to get this right. And I think that's what we're looking at.