Sunday, August 14, 2005

Reality bites: "What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." Washington Post: The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad. The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say. 12:19:17 PM   permalink   comment []

"Our children give our existence so much meaning, substance and structure that it's no wonder we want to ship them off from time to time." My newspaper column this morning: notes from Grown-up Camp. Read the whole thing. 9:37:50 AM   permalink   comment []