Kissinger - staying the course despite his comments

According to this AP report in the Columbus Dispatch:

Kissinger presented a bleak vision of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq's neighbors - including Iran - if progress is to be made in the region.

"If you mean by 'military victory,' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

However he doesn't advise a rapid pulling of troops out of Iraq either:

"A dramatic collapse of Iraq - whatever we think about how the situation was created - would have disastrous consequences for which we would pay for many years and which would bring us back, one way or another, into the region," he said.

Does he offer a solution?

"I think we have to redefine the course, but I don't think that the alternative is between military victory, as defined previously, or total withdrawal," he said.

That appears to mean having US Troops in Iraq for quite some time, which means the whole "stay the course" theme promoted by the Whitehouse. Redefining the course really doesnt mean anything except word games in how justification is made. It seems obvious that the collapse of Iraq is going to happen no matter what unless changes are made which would have to include more than just merely "redefining the course". While he is correct that Iran is important to a solution in Iraq, with the current relationship between the US and Iran, it would be very unlikely that Iran is going to agree to have any part in an assisting role.