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Ten Days in Iraq: A Trip Report
Speaker: Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations
Presider: Richard Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations

...I said, "Well, where is all this heading?" And no kidding, he said to me, "A 10-division Iraqi armed force." And I lost it at that point, the only time in the whole trip I just lost it. I said, "Ten divisions! The United States Army has 10 divisions!" And he said, "And two mechanized divisions." I said, "We have two mechanized divisions! You're going to create an Iraqi army as big as the American Army? Are you nuts?"

And then the next PowerPoint chart comes up: "Well, we need a division here and we need a division here and we need a division" -- it became very apparent to me that these 10 divisions were to fight some future war against Iran. It had nothing to do -- nothing to do -- with taking that country over from us and fighting the insurgents. ...