The Iraq Crisis (WP Sunday editorial)

[huckleberry]

Finally, the complicit WP editorial page acknowledges the mess in Iraq....

April 11, 2004
THE CRISIS now faced by the United States in Iraq has been aggravated by the many errors of policy since the fall of Baghdad a year ago. The Bush administration's refusal to support an international postwar administration has helped fuel a nationalist and anti-American backlash. Its failure to recruit broader participation in its interim administration means it has fewer Iraqi allies than it should in the fight against Shiite extremists and Sunni insurgents. The overdependence on hastily recruited and often-untrained Iraqi police and militia, and an inability to recruit more soldiers from traditional allies, has left U.S. troops fighting -- and dying -- almost alone. If it is to end the current upheaval and restore the prospect of Iraq's stabilization under a sovereign and representative government, the administration -- led by President Bush -- must quickly begin to address those underlying problems.

snip

A much higher profile is needed for the United Nations, which, rather than the United States, should oversee the political process. Conceivably the June 30 deadline for a transfer of sovereignty might have to be postponed to make possible the construction of a workable government. But since most Iraqis are anxious to see an end of the foreign occupation, any prolongation will be highly risky. The idea shouldn't come from the United States; it could emerge only from a U.N. process, and then only if fully supported by Ayatollah Sistani and other popular leaders.

more at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2542-2004Apr10.html

[bemildred]

1. The state propaganda organs seem to have switched to

full out ass-covering mode. First admission I have seem
that the "occupation will have to end", appears they
are pulling for a non-hostile Iraq and a fig-leaf for the
illegal war, but talk is cheap, especially with US "News"
media.