Robert Blackwill
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"Robert Dean Blackwill" is a retired United States/American diplomat, author, Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and lobbyist. Blackwill was the United States Ambassador to India (2001–2003), and United States National Security Council Deputy for Iraq (2003–2004), where he was a liaison between Paul Bremer and Condoleezza Rice.

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This is now a very large boulder in the room of this relationship that will either get rolled out the door or not.

Most members have not decided yet. We will know better about the situation on the Hill by Friday after secretary of state Rice's testimony. She will be the most articulate and persuasive advocate of the agreement.

The President's visit, at least to some extent, marks the transition from a 40-or-so-year painful bilateral history to the transformed relationship the two countries have today.

Consider the key countries of the world.

The best time to make these breakthroughs is when the political leaders are engaged. If it gets turned back to the bureaucracies, we'll never have an agreement.