Mr. Snow said the issue of benchmarks had come up cursorily during recent discussions with Mr. Bush ; Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ; Gen. John P. Abizaid , the top American commander in the Middle East ; Gen. Peter Pace , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ; and Zalmay Khalilzad , the American ambassador to Iraq .
Middle East /location/location/contains Iraq
NNP NNP VBD DT NN IN NNS VBD VBN RP RB IN JJ NNS IN NNP NNP : NNP NNP NNP NNP NNP : NNP NNP NNP NNP , DT JJ JJ NN IN DT NNP NNP : NNP NNP NNP , DT NN IN DT NNP NNPS IN NNP : CC NNP NNP , DT JJ NN TO NNP .