<Only a complete UN mandate will let them pretend they can declare victory and leave.>
Oil is one more issue, where we could have made useful deals a while ago, but our bargaining position has steadily worsened. It's clear, now, that Iraq (in spite of all its oil) is going to be a money sink, for the foreseeable future, for whoever is in charge. Even if the Iraqis quit blowing up pipelines, and even if oil exports ramp as fast as the optimists hope, all the profits will need to be plowed back into the infrastructure. For years. Nothing left for the spoils of war, or to bribe the Russians with. Halliburton is being paid, not out of Iraqi oil revenues, but by increasing the U.S. federal debt.
Given how he's dissed the UN, a "complete mandate" would be a defeat for Bush. And they aren't talking about leaving, or sharing power. They are still talking about successful pacification, and staying permanently. And even their UN mandate, won't get them many troops. 10,000 new non-US troops isn't going to reduce our burden much.
Speaking of non-irrelevancies, what are we going to do about Arafat? Let the Israelis exile or kill him? Now that the Road Map has failed, will the Administration just stop saying anything about that conflict? Was the Road Map just to get Blair to side with us? And now that Blair is lashed to the mast of our Titanic (with the NeoCon band playing on, on the Sunday talk shows, as the ship goes down), there is no need to even pretend we care about the Palestinians? |
