No sugar for your coffee

Every so often the American Embassy in Iraq runs out of sugar because it has become much harder for us to bring in food now that the troops have left. Things have been so bad that some holiday meals of the embassy staff consisted of MRE, the food given to soldiers in the field.

Because of our deteriorating relations with the Iraqis, we will likely cut the embassy staff way back, perhaps the staff will be only 8,000, one-half of what it is now. Relations are so bad that the Prime Minister's office has to approve of visas for all Americans; sometimes it takes the approval of the Prime Minister himself.