When Fareed Zakaria writes, “Barack Obama needs to give a speech about Iraq. Otherwise he will find himself in the unusual position of having being prescient about the war in 2002 and yet being overtaken by events in 2008. He will need to implement a serious policy on Iraq, one that is consistent with his long-held views but is also informed by the conditions on the ground today,” I think he’s trying to write around the fact that Obama’s current proposed policy changes on Iraq are not informed by conditions on the ground today, and that he has, in fact, “been overtaken by events.”

Events like the U.S. military handing over security control of Anbar province to Iraqi forces in the next 10 days.