April 26, 2005: CFR Official: US Policy Towards Iran ‘Unrealistically Optimistic’

Leslie Gelb, president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), returns from a trip to Iraq and complains that Washington is exhibiting a “totally unrealistic optimism” about events in that country. Gelb, a former Pentagon official, also says in his report that the US military is preparing Iraqis for a future war with Iran. “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,” Gelb concludes. [Gelb, 4/26/2005; Boston Globe, 6/17/2005]