He arrived at the location to find a large crowd of African-American residents who were in an upbeat mood, anticipating the excitement of a Kennedy campaign appearance. Kennedy realized they had not yet heard of the death of Martin Luther King. In one of the more extraordinary moments in American political history, Robert F. Kennedy broke the news to them in an extemporaneous, unscripted speech of the kind that few politicians can ever hope to emulate. This is the text of his remarks that day; full audio of the speech, with its rhetorical rhythms and the reactions of the audience in the hall, is available here as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some -- some very sad news for all of you -- Could you lower those signs, please? -- I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee met Wednesday afternoon to hear testimony from three expert witnesses on the current political state of Iraq. The Committee members sought to answer some questions about the status of the reconciliation process and about the the causes of the recent flair-up of the violence in Basra and Baghdad. An archived webcast of this hearing is available at the SFRC website.

The testimony was very upsetting. Iraq has a central government in name only. Most of Iraq is “governed” from the bottom-up by warlords who are in charge of their own mini-regions in various parts of the country. It was these warlords who are responsible for handling government functions in their mini-states. The United States is currently sending out payments to a number of these local rulers to ensure peace in their regions.

This leads to a very precarious and fragile peace. The various clans involved are interested in preserving their own power in their region, not in joining together to form an overall security strategy for the nation of Iraq. The government of Nouri Al-Maliki is really one large faction and is only a regional player; the Iraqi Security Forces are only nominally a national force.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing titled “Iraq After the Surge: Military Options” this morning. Three retired generals and an expert from a foreign policy think tank testified on the status of Iraq and what comes next for our troops and our military forces in Iraq.

There was a remarkable agreement among all these experts on what is going to happen next in Iraq: the US will start to withdraw its troops over the course of the next 10 months. The troops levels we have in Iraq are unsustainable. The Army and the Marine Corps are beginning to fray under the burden of multiple deployments. This is not a matter of choice, it is a cold reaction to the realities on the ground and in the field.

The hearing brought up several excellent points: