Commentary: Looking for the exit (UPI)

[huckleberry]

By Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor at Large
Published 4/29/2004 12:38 PM

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- If it wasn't a quagmire, it was certainly quagmiry. And the first prominent retired general to break ranks with President Bush's Iraq war policy was a Republican who once headed the National Security Agency and also served as a deputy National Security Adviser. Gen. William E. Odom, a fluent Russian speaker who teaches at Georgetown and Yale, told the Wall Street Journal's John Harwood staying the course in Iraq is untenable.

It was hard to disagree with Odom's description of Mr. Bush's vision of reordering the Middle East by building a democracy in Iraq as a pipedream. His prescription: Remove U.S. forces "from that shattered country as rapidly as possible." Odom says bluntly, "we have failed," and "the issue is how high a price we're going to pay - less, by getting out sooner, or more, by getting out later."

snip

The Journal's John Hardwood in his Capital Journal column asks which sounds more credible - Gen. Odom's gloomy forecast or Mr. Bush's prediction of success? He does not tell us which way he's leaning. But a company-size bevy of retired U.S. generals and admirals were in constant touch this week with a volunteer drafter putting the final touches to a "tough condemnation" of the Bush administration's Middle Eastern policy.

The Council of Foreign Relations organized a conference call-in for its members with Gen. Odom. A score of former U.S. ambassadors who had served in the Middle East were also discussing how to join their voices to Britain's 52 former ambassadors, high commissioners and governors who wrote to Tony Blair to accuse him of scuttling peace efforts between Israel and Palestinians. The British diplomats also took Mr. Blair to task for policies "doomed to failure" in Iraq.

more at
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040429-113745-2828r

[LandOLincoln]

1. Wow. Bush'n'Blair are about to get set adrift in a lifeboat.

If they're lucky...

[teryang]

2. de Borchgrave is influential

...this article is describing a seachange in conservative views. I don't even think Abazaid supports the administrations policies at this point. After his remarks yesterday, I'm suprised he wasn't sacked. But if was sacked, the regime would have to admit they are falling apart.

[bemildred]

3. Yep. Time to cut their losses.

I was surprised to see his name on it.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[yellowcanine]

5. Isn't de Borchgrave a Moonie lackey?

Former Wash Times editor and window dressing for Rev. Moon's journalistic enterprises? This could be a signal that Rev. Moon is bailing out of the PNAC club - either extremely bad news for Bush or possibly a signal that Bush is about to do a 180 and pull out of Iraq?