Some Key Quotes from an Article in Sunday's Washington Post
U.S. Lowers Sights on What Can Be Achieved In Iraq
"The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say."
Yes. So it would appear that the Bush administration has come to its senses and realized that what everyone's been saying for the past couple of years is true.
""What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning.""
How grounded and practical of them. I respect leaders who can admit to mistakes that they've made and recalculate their position after some careful consideration. (Those flip-flopping bastards.)
"But whatever the outcome on specific disputes, the document on which Iraq's future is to be built will require laws to be compliant with Islam. Kurds and Shiites are expecting de facto long-term political privileges. And women's rights will not be as firmly entrenched as Washington has tried to insist, U.S. officials and Iraq analysts say.
"We set out to establish a democracy, but we're slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic," said another U.S. official familiar with policymaking from the beginning, who like some others interviewed would speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity. "That process is being repeated all over."
Noooo shit! That's about all I can say to that.
"Washington now does not expect to fully defeat the insurgency before departing, but instead to diminish it, officials and analysts said. There is also growing talk of turning over security responsibilities to the Iraqi forces even if they are not fully up to original U.S. expectations, in part because they have local legitimacy that U.S. troops often do not."
Translation: We plan to walk away from the clusterfuck that we have created and try our damnedest not to think about it anymore. Also, we have thought of an excellent justification for ducking out on training and supporting the Iraqi troops. This both
solves the problem of us having to aid them, and also ensures that it will seem like it's their fault when the shit really hits the fan shortly after we leave.
""The most thoroughly dashed expectation was the ability to build a robust self-sustaining economy. We're nowhere near that. State industries, electricity are all below what they were before we got there," said Wayne White, former head of the State Department's Iraq intelligence team who is now at the Middle East Institute. "The administration says Saddam ran down the country. But most damage was from looting [after the invasion], which took down state industries, large private manufacturing, the national electric" system."
That pretty much speaks for itself. We're revitalized the country and it's economy in sort of the same way that Hodgkins disease revitalizes your lymphatic system. w00t.
In other news, I just got back from the beach. Maybe I'll post about that later. For right now, suffice it to say that Feaz came with me, and it was awesome.
"The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say."
Yes. So it would appear that the Bush administration has come to its senses and realized that what everyone's been saying for the past couple of years is true.
""What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning.""
How grounded and practical of them. I respect leaders who can admit to mistakes that they've made and recalculate their position after some careful consideration. (Those flip-flopping bastards.)
"But whatever the outcome on specific disputes, the document on which Iraq's future is to be built will require laws to be compliant with Islam. Kurds and Shiites are expecting de facto long-term political privileges. And women's rights will not be as firmly entrenched as Washington has tried to insist, U.S. officials and Iraq analysts say.
"We set out to establish a democracy, but we're slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic," said another U.S. official familiar with policymaking from the beginning, who like some others interviewed would speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity. "That process is being repeated all over."
Noooo shit! That's about all I can say to that.
"Washington now does not expect to fully defeat the insurgency before departing, but instead to diminish it, officials and analysts said. There is also growing talk of turning over security responsibilities to the Iraqi forces even if they are not fully up to original U.S. expectations, in part because they have local legitimacy that U.S. troops often do not."
Translation: We plan to walk away from the clusterfuck that we have created and try our damnedest not to think about it anymore. Also, we have thought of an excellent justification for ducking out on training and supporting the Iraqi troops. This both
solves the problem of us having to aid them, and also ensures that it will seem like it's their fault when the shit really hits the fan shortly after we leave.
""The most thoroughly dashed expectation was the ability to build a robust self-sustaining economy. We're nowhere near that. State industries, electricity are all below what they were before we got there," said Wayne White, former head of the State Department's Iraq intelligence team who is now at the Middle East Institute. "The administration says Saddam ran down the country. But most damage was from looting [after the invasion], which took down state industries, large private manufacturing, the national electric" system."
That pretty much speaks for itself. We're revitalized the country and it's economy in sort of the same way that Hodgkins disease revitalizes your lymphatic system. w00t.
In other news, I just got back from the beach. Maybe I'll post about that later. For right now, suffice it to say that Feaz came with me, and it was awesome.