So why, instead of waiting two months for the general's report, have politicians in Washington allowed the debate to take on such a frantic new character?

前置成分：

WHEN a war such as the one in Iraq turns bad, there is not always a particular moment that defines the　point of defeat.

If anything, it has so far been a modest success.

As John McCain told the Senate this week after a visit to Iraq, the new

strategy has been an improvement on the one it replaced.

By venturing out of their bases to offer direct protection to Iraq's population, American soldiers have been able to reduce the sectarian killings in the capital.

In Diyala province American troops have moved on the city of Baquba.

In a trial widely condemned　abroad as unfair, the six have been convicted of deliberately infecting hundreds　of Libyan children with HIV.

后置成分

Continuing to support this war has now become a near-suicidal strategy for any ambitious politician, as the principled Senator McCain has discovered to his cost.

An earthquake rocked Kashiwazaki in Japan, killing ten people.

A nuclear plant was damaged and　leaked water containing radioactive compounds, raising safety concerns about Japanese facilities.

He also took steps to boost the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his secular Fatah group in the　West Bank, in the hope of weakening its Islamist rivals in Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last　month.

经济学人杂志典型段落分析：

What Iran is doing at Natanz is entirely illegal. It has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and　says its nuclear aims are peaceful. But having spent decades deceiving nuclear inspectors, it is　disbelieved even by its friends. A year ago this month Russia and China therefore joined the rest of the　UN Security Council in ordering Iran to stop. It carried on regardless. The Security Council followed up　with two resolutions, in December 2006 and March this year, repeating its demands and applying　sanctions. The centrifuges spin defiantly on.