Lt Col Noel Brazier was the real officer who went back and forth between the two, trying to persuade them to stop sending troops over the top.
After an army base in North Kivu was attacked earlier this month, Congo accused Rwanda of sending troops over the border to abet the North Kivu insurgents, led by a renegade Tutsi general, Laurent Nkunda.
Civil wars have battered the central African nation since its independence, neighboring Angola sent troops over the border in 1997, and a militia known as "ninjas" waged a guerrilla campaign for years.
"The failures of judgment, the miscalculations, the failures of command, the miscalculation about the numbers of troops needed to win the peace, the miscalculation about not having a plan to win the peace, the miscalculation of sending troops over there without adequate armor, with Humvees that aren't armored," Mr. Kerry clicked off his litany of complaints.
At a time when there is a "quiet crisis" in Saudi Arabia -– which sent troops over a 16-mile causeway to quell the uprising in Bahrain -– and growing violence in Syria, Indyk said it is important for Clinton to set forth "universal values" and a "framework to know where U.S. interests lie".
That cynical bit of realpolitik seems to have led the king to send troops last week over the causeway from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain, where they backed up a violent crackdown on unarmed protesters by Bahrain's own security forces.
The Japanese agonize over whether to send troops.
She recalled the first President George Bush's decision to send troops into Somalia just before handing over the Oval Office to Mr. Clinton.
Some wanted Mr Putin to send troops.
On December 12th, President Omar Bashir declared a state of emergency, suspended parts of the constitution and sent troops to take over parliament.
