That's about right. I doubt Villepin even expects his proposal to be taken seriously
By the time the NeoCons get around to offering their latest fallback position, it's too late. If, before the war, they had negotiated what the French are offering today, it might have worked. If they had never disbanded the Iraqi army, simply reflagged those units as they surrendered, and immediately handed internal security over to them, it might have worked. If they had, before the war, lined up occupation troops from Arabic-speaking nations, it might have worked. Unilateralism is being grudgingly abandoned, but too late, too little. They are way behind the curve.
The sheer idiocy of having non-Arabic-speaking soldiers manning roadblocks in Iraq. Of course this is going to lead to misunderstandings, which will regularly kill the wrong people. Predictable and obvious. Meanwhile, every adult male in the country has a rifle, and military training. And we can't or won't get any of them to man roadblocks for us.
I could be wrong. Perhaps the Control Freaks in Washington will show some flexibility, and persuade the French to join our adventure. But it looks more like nobody, not the Indians or Pakistanis or French, is going to leap aboard the sinking NeoCon ship. Probably the French are just stringing us along, saying "no" by setting conditions they know will be rejected, just like Turkey did before Operation Iraqi Freedom-Not. |
