Monday, September 20, 2004
How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?
Conservative columnist Robert Novak indicates in his column today that a reelected Bush Administration will cut and run in Iraq:
In a nutshell, Novak is saying that Bush and his people have no idea what to do with Iraq. Apparently the sunshine they've been blowing up our backsides (despite massive evidence to the contrary) is nothing more than outright lying.
Novak is clearly uncomfortable with what he hears from the Bush people...yet complains about Kerry too. To Novak, Kerry not wanting to abandon the mess we've made in Iraq is no better than abandoning it.
It's pretty clear that conservatives and neoconservatives have absolutely no idea what to do with Iraq. Yet apparently Bush is ready to bail out, leaving Iraq into what will inevitably be a massive civil war. This completely irresponsible position leaves the US in a reprehensible foreign policy position. And worse, the conservatives and neoconservatives don't appear to be learning from this lesson. As Novak points out, David Brooks' August 29th New York Times Magazine piece that calls for "strengthening of nation states" and calling for a "multilateral nation building apparatus" seems to encourage invasions of other states.
Update:And Kos has the question of the day: "Where are the terrorist alerts?" Since W's poll numbers have improved, the terror alerts seem to have strangely dissapeared.
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Well-placed sources in the administration are confident Bush's decision will be to get out. They believe that is the recommendation of his national security team and would be the recommendation of second-term officials. An informed guess might have Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Paul Wolfowitz as defense secretary and Stephen Hadley as national security adviser. According to my sources, all would opt for a withdrawal.
Getting out now would not end expensive U.S. reconstruction of Iraq, and certainly would not stop the fighting. Without U.S. troops, the civil war cited as the worst-case outcome by the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate would be a reality. It would then take a resolute president to stand aside while Iraqis battle it out.
The end product would be an imperfect Iraq, probably dominated by Shia Muslims seeking revenge over long oppression by the Sunni-controlled Baathist Party. The Kurds would remain in their current semi-autonomous state. Iraq would not be divided, reassuring neighboring countries -- especially Turkey -- that are apprehensive about ethnically divided nations.
In a nutshell, Novak is saying that Bush and his people have no idea what to do with Iraq. Apparently the sunshine they've been blowing up our backsides (despite massive evidence to the contrary) is nothing more than outright lying.
Novak is clearly uncomfortable with what he hears from the Bush people...yet complains about Kerry too. To Novak, Kerry not wanting to abandon the mess we've made in Iraq is no better than abandoning it.
It's pretty clear that conservatives and neoconservatives have absolutely no idea what to do with Iraq. Yet apparently Bush is ready to bail out, leaving Iraq into what will inevitably be a massive civil war. This completely irresponsible position leaves the US in a reprehensible foreign policy position. And worse, the conservatives and neoconservatives don't appear to be learning from this lesson. As Novak points out, David Brooks' August 29th New York Times Magazine piece that calls for "strengthening of nation states" and calling for a "multilateral nation building apparatus" seems to encourage invasions of other states.
Update:And Kos has the question of the day: "Where are the terrorist alerts?" Since W's poll numbers have improved, the terror alerts seem to have strangely dissapeared.
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