Kids’ activities have me running behind on various things so here’s a little catch up on a couple items on Iraq and the “War on Terror.”
- Bush and Cheney are giving Kerry hell for insulting our hand-picked Iraqi leader, Allawi, by saying Allawi is putting the “best face” on things in his country. But let’s look beyond the surface. Allawi said 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces are safe and elections could be held there tomorrow. This post of Juan Cole’s shows the reality of the situation.
- I’ve repeatedly commented here about how we went after the one member of the so-called “Axis of Evil” that had no weapons of mass destruction, leaving the remaining two to further built here nuclear weapons programs. Now we’re starting to hear “WMD” and “regime change” in a frightening context again. This is from the new Newsweek:
[I]f the allegations are correct, Iran is only one of the countries whose secret nuclear programs hummed along while America waged a single-minded hunt for WMD in Iraq. Another is North Korea, which hasn’t stopped claiming that it’s turning a stockpile of spent fuel rods into a doomsday arsenal. And arms-control specialists are increasingly alarmed by Brazil’s efforts to do precisely what Iran is doing[.] * * *
[A]dministration hawks are pinning their hopes on regime change in Tehran — by covert means, preferably, but by force of arms if necessary. Papers on the idea have circulated inside the administration, mostly labeled “draft” or “working draft” to evade congressional subpoena powers and the Freedom of Information Act. Informed sources say the memos echo the administration’s abortive Iraq strategy: oust the existing regime, swiftly install a pro-U.S. government in its place (extracting the new regime’s promise to renounce any nuclear ambitions) and get out.
So, not re-defeating Bush makes America and the world safer how?.
- And in the hearts and minds department, Knight-Ridder reports: “Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis — most of them civilians — as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry.” I previously noted the probable results in Reality Gaming.
