Via Froomkin:
Walter Pincus and Ann Scott Tyson report in The Washington Post on congressional testimony from Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who until recently led the U.S. military’s training effort in Iraq.
“Describing the U.S. effort in Iraq as a labor of Sisyphus, he said the metaphoric stone is ‘probably rolling back a bit right now in Baghdad. But I don’t think it’s going to roll over us.’
“Dempsey depicted the level of violence tolerated by Iraqis as ‘mind-numbing’ and acknowledged that a dearth of security has made some Iraqis nostalgic for the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.‘You’ll hear people say, “You know, we were a lot more secure and safe during the Saddam regime,” ‘ he told the oversight panel of the House Armed Services Committee.”