BUSH Likely To WITHDRAW From IRAQ After Election

liberalpragmatist

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Mon Sep-20-04 04:41 PM
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BUSH Likely To WITHDRAW From IRAQ After Election

Edited on Mon Sep-20-04 05:04 PM by liberalpragmatist

According to, in the immortal words of Jon Stewart, that great "Douchebag of Liberty," Bob Novak, the neocons are on the verge of abandoning their Iraq project. After Iraqi "elections" are held in January, the plan to quickly exit and declare victory. Take this with a grain of salt, but if true, who's the real "cut-and-run" figure (as Spencer Ackerman of the New Republic Online has asked)?

Moreover, now the Neocons are saying it will take a, quote, RESOLUTE president like Bush to resist the temptation to get back involved in Iraq once the place blows up into civil war. Now, the neocons are saying that the mistake in Iraq was trying to stay and fix it up - instead, now their new ideology is just to depose regimes and get the hell out.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak20.html

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.

<snip>

Well-placed sources in the administration are confident Bush's decision will be to get out. They believe that is the recommendation of his national security team and would be the recommendation of second-term officials. An informed guess might have Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Paul Wolfowitz as defense secretary and Stephen Hadley as national security adviser. According to my sources, all would opt for a withdrawal.

Getting out now would not end expensive U.S. reconstruction of Iraq, and certainly would not stop the fighting. Without U.S. troops, the civil war cited as the worst-case outcome by the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate would be a reality. It would then take a resolute president to stand aside while Iraqis battle it out.

<snip>

This messy new Iraq is viewed by Bush officials as vastly preferable to Saddam's police state, threatening its neighbors and the West. In private, some officials believe the mistake was not in toppling Saddam but in staying there for nation building after the dictator was deposed.

Unreal.

EDIT: Take this with a grain of salt. This is Novak. And I'm somewhat skeptical that the neocons are abandoning their "dream." Personally, I think it's just as likely that they're going to stay there and pour forces in for years until we HAVE to get out and nearly 10,000 (*hopefully* not more) troops are dead.

But to be honest, I can also see the scenario Novak lays out realistically. If Rove realizes that continued involvement in Iraq is going to doom the GOP after a *won* election, do you really think Bushco's going to do anything other than withdraw? These guys are the most political shitfaces I've ever seen. Do you really think they'll stay put if it's hurting the GOP? They'll pull out, cynically declare victory. Bush will keep claiming that he did the right thing and that any mess that resolves isn't his fault - it's the Democrats and the Iraqis fault, not his. Plus, withdrawing would free up forces to topple Iran and North Korea, as part of the new revised neocon ideology, where we just depose regimes we don't like and don't stay to clean up the mess.

Oh, and about the oil thing - is it so inconceivable that they'll just let Allawi become dictator after crushing the insurgents in a brutal campaign that wipes out entire Sunni cities ala the Hama Masacre in Syria (look it up)? As long as Allawi gives them their oil - well, that's probably a *success* to them.