fill in the links:
or just try to keep up with the run-on sentence:
Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qadir Mohammed Jassim Obeidi al-Mifarji', who was talking today about needing US troops "until 2012... at least 2018", is "a career armor officer who commanded Iraqi troops who fought alongside Marine Corps forces during the battle for Falluja in 2004" who was appointed to the Defense Ministry in June 2006 with "no links to any Iraqi political faction" - how else would you get appointed to Minidef in Iraq? - after "American officials made it a priority to persuade the winners in the election not to give top posts in the defense and interior ministries to anyone linked to armed groups" and "U.S. officials offered Iraqi leaders a list of more than a dozen former Iraqi military officers they would like to be considered for the defense and interior posts" at the beginning of the five month long process of putting together Maliki's "unity government", seems to nevertheless have links to a political faction, and it's not the same one as the Iraqi government spokesman who says they only need US troops until "the end of 2008".
via.
your turing test:
Oil for Nothing:US Holds On Humanitarian SuppliesIraq: 1997-2001
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