Bush's Big Political Gamble

[UpInArms]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/28/politics/main626506.shtml

The formal end of U.S. civil authority in Iraq could mark a turning point in the Bush administration's hopes to win the peace in Iraq and possibly four more years in office.
If the peace is not won, Mr. Bush probably loses the presidential election, polling indicates. If it is won, if Iraq appears to be tangibly moving towards stability, Mr. Bush will likely win reelection, provided the economy continues to improve.

Fifteen months, more than $100 billion and 852 American fatalities after the U.S.- led invasion, Saddam Hussein is in custody and, as President Bush said Monday, the "Iraqi people have their country back." Speaking in Istanbul, where he was attending the NATO summit, the president added, "We have kept our word."

Monday's transfer of power to an Iraqi interim government, two days ahead of schedule, is of great symbolic importance to Iraqis, but little is expected to change on the ground for the short term.

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But because Americans tend to look forward rather than backward, and have short historical memories, the ends in Iraq will likely justify the means by which the president went about the war.

Though the original case for war was based upon claims Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, still not found, and largely disproved administrative inferences of ties between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a stable Iraq may still be enough to justify this war for American voters.

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If the US citizenry is this shallow, I shall :puke: