"Iraq has said it wants to join NATO."["Iraq" has said this? Or at some point some idle dreamer proposed this as he whispered sweet nothings in an American official's ear?]

"Iraq's democracy was interrupted by a military coup." [when was this? Is this a reference to the coup of Qassem in 1958, by which the despotism run by Nuri es-Said (the "strongman" as he was always called in TIME Magazine) was overthrown? Was it the later military coup in which Qassem was killed? When was there "democracy" in Iraq -- ever?]

"Anything you want a strongman to do, you can get Karzai and Maliki to do. Another thing you can do is topple the neighbours!" [Karzai is a "strongman"? Helplessly dependent on the United States, unable to control even Kabul, how is he a "strongman"? And Maliki, afraid to even begin to hint at dismantling the Shi'a militia, a ditherer who hasn't any idea what to do -- a "strongman"? And my, that phrase about how, in a pinch, you can simply "topple the neighbours"? Really? Which ones? Iran? Just "topple it" just like that? My.]

"All we can do is set things up so that their [unidentified possessive pronoun, referring to Sunni "insurgents" or Shi'a militias or god knows what] efforts amount to nothing, because there's a limitless supply of new recruits to the government forces."[Actually, what is endlessly replenishable is the supply of people in Iraq who hate the Infidels, and want them out, or at least -- see the latest opinion polls taken in Iraq -- support attacks on Americans even if some of them supporting attacks also, incredibly, may want the Americans to remain a bit longer in order to protect them against their sectarian and ethnic enemies. Yes, stay to protect us, but we also have the right and even the duty to keep killing you.]
-- all from the same reader, with replies in brackets

Hallucinatory.