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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (146013)	9/20/2004 5:18:00 PM
From: Alastair McIntosh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I haven't seen this posted yet: Quick exit from Iraq is likely September 20, 2004 BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year. This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go. This prospective policy is based on Iraq's national elections in late January, but not predicated on ending the insurgency or reaching a national political settlement. Getting out of Iraq would end the neoconservative dream of building democracy in the Arab world. The United States would be content having saved the world from Saddam Hussein's quest for weapons of mass destruction. The reality of hard decisions ahead is obscured by blather on both sides in a presidential campaign. Six weeks before the election, Bush cannot be expected to admit even the possibility of a quick withdrawal. Sen. John Kerry's political aides, still languishing in fantastic speculation about European troops to the rescue, do not even ponder a quick exit. But Kerry supporters with foreign policy experience speculate that if elected, their candidate would take the same escape route. Continues at: suntimes.com

To: michael97123 who wrote (146013)	9/20/2004 5:22:39 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I think that we deferred to the Iraqi Authority, which was necessary if they have any independent credibility. Otherwise, I think we were ready to deal with Fallujah and other areas more forcefully a few month ago. I agree that military, rather than political, imperatives should be paramount, but we cannot succeed without cooperation from the authorities "on the ground", like Sistani, nor will it do us much good to signal that we are at the beginning of another "television war" by showing an overt connection to the election. Politics will enter in, as part of the strategic considerations. Mostly, I hope, myself, for a major offensive ASAP, especially in Fallujah, spear- headed, as I have said repeatedly, by special forces units for the "surgical interdiction" of the leadership and much of their armaments. But I am not privy to any special knowledge, so Que Sera, Sera..........