The problem with Iraqi "democracy" Bush-style: The people don't believe

[BurtWorm]

in it. You can't build democracy without the will of the people. Which is what the Bushists are trying and failing to do in Iraq.


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/13/politics/13INTE.html?pagewanted=print&position=


C.I.A. Report Suggests Iraqis Are Losing Faith in U.S. Efforts
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 ? A bleak top-secret report by the Central Intelligence Agency suggests that the situation in Iraq is approaching a crucial turning point, with ordinary Iraqis losing faith in American-led occupation forces and in the United States-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

The report, sent to Washington on Monday by the C.I.A.'s Baghdad station chief, suggests that the situation is creating a more fertile environment for the anti-American insurgency. Officials said the report was adding to the sense of urgency behind the administration's reappraisal of its policies in Iraq.

The officials said that the report, dated Nov. 10, had been explicitly endorsed by L. Paul Bremer III, the top American official in Iraq, and that the warnings it spelled out had been a factor behind Mr. Bremer's abrupt return to Washington for consultations this week.

The C.I.A. and the White House refused even to confirm the existence of the report, which was first disclosed by The Philadelphia Inquirer. But government officials outside those agencies said its conclusions were among the darkest intelligence assessments distributed since the American-led invasion of Iraq in March.

"It says that this is an insurgency, and that it is gaining strength because Iraqis have no confidence that there is anyone on the horizon who is going to stick around in Iraq as a real alternative to the former regime," one American official said.


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[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BurtWorm]

3. If Karl Rove is such a political genius,

he'll figure out a way to cut bait and make it look like Bush hauled in a whopper. He'll have the troops mostly out of Iraq by next summer, so he can run movies at the convention about how Bush won the war and got our boys and girls the hell out of that godforsaken country before it all fell apart.

I doubt he's such a genius. He'd have to leash Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, and convince the boy that god wants him to quit Iraq so he can have another term.

[BurtWorm]

4. kick

[Spazito]

5. Bush can't cut and run for a number of reasons, one big one is....

the probability of Iraq becoming an Islamic state and the US cannot allow that. That is why the frantic change of position, Bush needs the "irrelevant" UN to bail him out because he cannot simply leave. The UN now has Bush in a vice grip, negotiations will be much tougher now. The "sale" of Iraqi assets to US corporations is a non-starter, the non-bid contracts will be moot, etc. I have no doubt that the UN will insist on that as openers to the negotiations.

[truthspeaker]

6. I don't know...

We abandoned Afghanistan to the wolves and nobody noticed.

[Spazito]

8. Bush doesn't need Afghanistan, only the right of way for their..

pipeline but he does need Iraq for the centerpiece for "changing" the dynamics in the Middle East. He cannot leave, the plan was to make Iraq the centerpiece for launching "regime change" on other middle east countries.

The ingnorance of middle east culture that the Bush cabal portrayed and continues to portray led them to believe that, like reality tv, the Iraqis have the same short attention span and would move on after "shock and awe". Had they known or cared to know anything about the middle east, they would have known that it is quite the opposite, wrongs are remembered for centuries and cultural and religious traditions are never to be shamed and demeaned.

[BurtWorm]

7. He is in a bind, whether he personally knows it or not.

Karl Rove does know it. Powell probably knows it. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz may even know it. But they're all working at cross purposes to try to extract him. (Cheney also seems not to know it.) The solution, as you suggest, would seem to entail humbling themselves before the UN and begging for help. But I don't think the UN will be clamoring to send more human targets to Iraq.

[rucky]

9. ...of the Occupying Forces, by the Occupying Forces, and for...

You can't make a state-sponsored corporate colony look like a democracy. Seems like the only folks who don't see right through this are Bushco and their supporters.

I'm still convinced that Il Dunce truly believes he's doing the right thing & that scares me more. If he were consciously evil, at least it would indicate an awareness of right and wrong.