IPS: Unilateralists Plunge Back to Earth

[huckleberry]

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep 6 (IPS) - It was always only a matter of time, but who would have predicted that the steep unilateralist trajectory on which neo-conservative and right-wing hawks set U.S. foreign policy two years ago would lose momentum so quickly after Washington's stunning military victory in Iraq in early April?

Now, just a week before the second anniversary of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the administration of President George W. Bush appears to have decided that Washington really cannot run Iraq -- let alone the entire Middle East -- by itself and must rely on others, even the much-despised United Nations, to help.

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While the battle for control is far from over, the signs of what is being euphemistically called a "policy adjustment" have emerged clearly in the past week.

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Carefully-orchestrated clarion calls by Wolfowitz and his allies in the media to stay the course in Iraq in order to defeat international terrorism once and for all, published at the beginning of the week in the neo-conservative 'Wall Street Journal' and 'Weekly Standard', were quickly drowned out by Republican lawmakers returning from the August recess demanding that the administration quickly devise an "exit strategy" for Iraq and -- explicitly evoking the Vietnam War -- show them a "light at the end of the tunnel".

"Wolfowitz frankly has very little credibility up here," said one Congressional staffer who recalled that the Pentagon's number two had led the campaign to persuade Congress that Iraq had vast quantities of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and close ties to al-Qaeda before the war. He has since admitted that the intelligence on both questions was "murky".

more at
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20008

[bemildred]

1. Still trying to protect Shrub.

Working on the question of who will need to fall on his sword.