Losing in Iraq, bucketing Hitchens, etc

"As America commemorates the 5th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a secret intelligence report reveals that Iraq's largest province has suffered a total breakdown in law and order.

According to the Washington Post, the chief of intelligence for the US Marine Corps in Iraq says the prospects for securing Iraq's western Anbar province are dim.

The classified report states there is almost nothing the US military can do to improve the political and social situation - a position at odds with the official White House position that conditions in Iraq are improving.

Thomas Ricks broke this story. He is the Pulitzer Prize winning Pentagon correspondent with the Washington Post.

He's also the author of a new book called Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq."

That was the intro, by presenter Fran Kelly, to an interview with Ricks on Breakfast on ABC Radio National this morning. Listen to the interview here - and look out for Christopher Hitchen's views on the Iraq War - he spoke on ABC Radio National's Breakfast program yesterday - getting a deserved bucketing.

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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