KRUGMAN: "he has led America into a major strategic defeat"

[nostamj]

<snip>

Now Mr. Bush hopes that by pretending that Mr. Allawi is a real leader of a real government, he can conceal the fact that he has led America into a major strategic defeat.

That's a stark statement, but it's a view shared by almost all independent military and intelligence experts. Put it this way: it's hard to identify any major urban areas outside Kurdistan where the U.S. and its allies exercise effective control. Insurgents operate freely, even in the heart of Baghdad, while coalition forces, however many battles they win, rule only whatever ground they happen to stand on. And efforts to put an Iraqi face on the occupation are self-defeating: as the example of Mr. Allawi shows, any leader who is too closely associated with America becomes tainted in the eyes of the Iraqi public.

Mr. Bush's insistence that he is nonetheless "pleased with the progress" in Iraq - when his own National Intelligence Estimate echoes the grim views of independent experts - would be funny if the reality weren't so grim. Unfortunately, this is no joke: to the delight of Al Qaeda, America's overstretched armed forces are gradually getting chewed up in a losing struggle.

So what's the answer?

The Bush administration fostered the Iraq insurgency by botching the essential tasks of enlisting allies, rebuilding infrastructure, training and equipping local security forces, and preparing for elections. It's understandable, then, that John Kerry - whose speech yesterday was deadly accurate in its description of Mr. Bush's mistakes - proposes going back and doing the job right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/opinion/21krugman.html

[Parche]

1. allawi

Is a puppet of the Bush admin
Everything that he said in the interview
was the same thing that Bush has said
"We need to fight them over there instead of here" crap
"War on terra" crap
"Everything is fine in Iraq" crap.......

[nostamj]

2. two 'con' artists...

[nostamj]

3. he's on AL Franken now! 1:10pm EST n/t

[vogonity]

4. What does the * cabal really think

quote--
Now Mr. Bush hopes that by pretending that Mr. Allawi is a real leader of a real government, he can conceal the fact that he has led America into a major strategic defeat.
---

Ok I know this is a bit of a stretch and the * administration deserves no benefit of the doubt. I am prepared to believe the worst about them, but yet I ask, what do you think these guys _really_ think about what happened with Iraq? Never mind what they say publicly now or what they publicly said then.

Do you think that when they are home at night, they admit to themselves that they have fucked up major? Even * himself, do you think that he knows it on _any_ level? I for one think that he probably does and is knocking that knowledge back with a whole lotta drugs.

I want to know how much sleep these people have lost over having to deal with the results of their horrible policies. I saw elsewhere someone posted that Condi Rice looked pretty haggard on TV this morning. Do you think any of these criminals will mentally crack under the moral weight of what they have done?

[Eloriel]

5. THERE's a phrase Kerry should use

Only I'd amend it to "catastrophic stretegic defeat"