Bush is backing off plans for a democratic Iraq...

[killbotfactory]

As much as I like the watching all the smug neocon pipe dreams being crushed by reality, this is probably bad news...

The new approach, U.S. diplomats said, calls into question the prospects for initiatives touted by conservative strategists to fashion Iraq into a secular, pluralistic, market-driven nation. While the diplomats maintain those goals are still attainable, the senior official said, "ideology has become subordinate to the schedule."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35053-2003Dec27.html

If things are still looking bad for Iraq (and they'll most definitely look bad), Bush is going to cut and run before the general election and Iraq will descend into civil war as he pulls the troops out and declares "mission accomplished, again!". Most likely, Iraq will return to the same state it was in before the war, only now with a brutal fundamentalist regime instead of a secular one.

Feel safer now that Saddam is caught?
Think the Iraq war was worth it?
Will America put up with Bush's bullshit for another year as he undermines our national security?
Will the press ignore the pending disaster?

Did any of the candidates who supported this stupid war, the self-proclaimed experts on national security, realize this was 100% predictable? Will they still maintain that getting Saddam made it all worthwhile?

[mikehiggins]

1. Plans? What plans? They don' need no stinkin' plans!

Look at how far they've gotten without even having a clue what the hell they were doing.

Now, there's supposed to be a plan?

Maybe there was one in the PNAC's wetdreams but even they ought to be waking up to the fact that the loonies have taken over the asylum.

I can't wait to start hearing the PNAC folks praising Dean as the voice of reasoned debate. That's when we'll know the millenium is at hand.

[killbotfactory]

2. There's plans, and then there's plans...

I think the plan BushCo came up with went something like this:

1. Invade Iraq.
2. ????
3. Profit!

I'm sure our soldiers will be pleased to know they are paying the price for this administrations incompetence.

[Cush]

4. that explains it,

they're getting advice from the Underwear Gnomes. Everything makes sense now.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

5. Yep

It's the READY-FIRE-AIM! strategy!

[HFishbine]

12. Killbot

That's too funny. No, really. Too funny. Please stop.

[Justice]

3. Clark Has A Plan

http://clark04.com/issues/iraqstrategy/

Bush* has been borrowing ideas from it -

Clark has the goods to get the US out of Iraq.

[amber dog democrat]

6. This is going to unravel

and go on to something just as undesireable if the US ever does pull out.
But I remain convinced the overriding interest has to do with oil.

Part of the neocon strategy for 21st century America has to do with securing access to easily obtainable oil reserves.

It never was about democracy.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Bush has always lacked the political savvy to pull this off.

History is not on our side when it comes to imposing democracy on others.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0115/p09s02-coop.html

"Among the major powers, the US has engaged in the largest number of regime changes. Since the past century, it has deployed its military to impose democratic rule in foreign lands on 18 occasions. Yet this impressive record of international activism has left an uninspiring legacy. Of all the regimes the US has replaced with force, democratic rule has been sustained in only five places - Germany, Japan, Italy, Panama, and Grenada. This suggests a success rate of less than 30 percent. Outside the developed world and Latin America, there hasn't been a single success."

[drfemoe]

11. Kosovo

is still a human rights disaster.

[patricia92243]

8. Are there ANY pretenses left for this war - no wmd - I can't even remember

what the other excuses were - but too bring Democracy to Iraq was one of them - and now this is gone too!

And of course the media will sit on their hands, and hate radio will make it out to be the best thing since sliced bread - truly sickening.

[killbotfactory]

10. No WMD, No democracy, no threat, no terrorists...

It seems to have just been a giant smash-and-grab by the Bush admin to take control of the Iraqi oil supply.

[Clark4Prez]

9. Don't these guys remember Afganastan in the 80's

We supported the insurgents, including Bin Laden, and cut and run after the USSR pulled out.

The Talban won the civil war and you know what happened after that!

Bush is a danger to America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[drfemoe]

13. How are they going to pull this off?

Bremer's plan for Iraqis to write a constitution before he departed had been intended to prevent extremists from dominating the drafting process. U.S. officials acknowledge that risk exists, but said it had been outweighed by the need to end the civil occupation by the summer. The presence of U.S. troops in Iraq will go on longer, military officials have said.

How do you "end the civil occupation" by leaving troops in Ira*?
More magic tricks. .. nothing meets the eye ..