Salon: Tough truths vs. patriotic pride

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When Bush and Kerry finally face off Sept. 30, which version of Iraq will the public buy?

By Mary Jacoby

Ayad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, stuck to the Bush administration's talking points in Washington this week. In media interviews, he insisted that U.S. troop levels in his violence-wracked country are just fine and that if Saddam Hussein were still in power, "terrorists be hitting there again at Washington and New York." In an address to Congress, the onetime CIA operative -- using language that appeared to be lifted from a Bush campaign speech -- spoke of the "determination of the Iraqi people to embrace democracy, peace and freedom." Handpicked by the Bush administration and rubber-stamped by the United Nations after its choice was rejected by the United States, Allawi stood smiling in the Rose Garden next to President Bush as he called critics of his Iraq policy weak-kneed pessimists.

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On Capitol Hill on Thursday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and said that, if Iraq is too insecure to hold national elections in January, "well, so be it." Not every Iraqi needed to vote, he said. "Nothing's perfect in life."

Tauscher found Rumsfeld's insouciant attitude about the elections disturbing. "You can't have San Francisco and Chicago and Dallas not vote in a national election and have anybody believe it is a credible election," she said. But without a major military operation to return control of insurgent-held cities in the Sunni triangle to the central government, Iraq will not be able to claim that it held a free and credible vote, Tauscher said. "I'm not criticizing the prime minister for being an optimist, or even for being in lockstep with the administration, who did, after all, appoint him. But expectations have got to be recast. There is a major counteroffensive that we have to launch in Fallujah, and I expect it will come after the elections. That means casualties will mount at Thanksgiving and Christmastime, and the American people aren't expecting this."

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Asked about reports that Fiji is considering contributing troops in Iraq, Reed diplomatically praised the South Pacific island nation, saying, "We certainly appreciate the contributions of any country around the globe." But they are of little help, he added, if troops "are not capable of doing particular missions and of supporting themselves logistically. And, I mean, how many troops is Fiji really going to bring?"

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http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/25/iraq/index.html