Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Posted here Tuesday, April 06, 2004 at 8:59:24 PM     With Bill O'Reilly coming out for leaving Iraq, the chance is much higher. Not that he is the cause, but part of the aparatus. If, the reasoning will be that to save the presidency, "we tried and the Iraqui's failed us."  Get it behind so the eletion can be won. The problem is, the incursion made Iraq into a crucial place. The damage is deep. The militarization and alignment of the ME against the US, and our perceived weakness is a dangerous combination. Both options look bad. Is there a third option? Escallation in Israel, or Iran are obvious possibilities, but teh US has  spent itself into near impotence. Bush might decide to go for broke (Texas culture plus stupidity and alck of concern for the country and world), or try to retreat.  Regaining the lost faith, which was real and based in part on actual reasonable behavior (on balalnce) since ww2, the world had with the US will take longer than the US can maintain anything like an ascendancy. The US is now third behind Europe and China in total market. The point is, this is a crucial time for the US, and we are saddled with Bush and the burrs under his saddle. Given the realities, is there a good strategy?   ********

Posted here Tuesday, April 06, 2004 at 12:15:44 PM       Lets assume, and I think we agree, that the incursion to Iraq was, wrong, most of us had doubts before, and that there was little planning for the occupation, and it was dmaned stupid and based on a fixed idea, not on intelligent thought. If we back up to a larger view we need an answer to the question, "what was the real threat from Pakistan and the tendency for a nuclear armed Islamic world to emerge from the ME to Indonesia?" If that threat was real, and i believe it, could a multilateral approach to the 9/11 implications have been a sufficient response?   Does the answer to that question affect the way we all, Bush, Kerrey and the rest of us, need to be thinking now about the apparent impossible situation in Iraq?   ********