U.S. Seeks A Faster Transition In Iraq, Top Administrator Returns for Talk

[cthrumatrix]

U.S. Seeks A Faster Transition In Iraq
Top Administrator Returns for Talks With White House
By Robin Wright and Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 12, 2003; Page A01


The Bush administration's foreign policy team yesterday began plotting strategy with L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Baghdad, to save the troubled political transition in Iraq by accelerating the hand-over of power, according to senior U.S. officials.

Bremer returned suddenly from Baghdad to discuss various proposals, including one to hold some form of elections in Iraq, possibly in four to six months, to select a new body that would write a constitution and an executive to assume sovereign powers in Baghdad. That formula is comparable to the model in postwar Afghanistan.

A senior U.S. official described the administration's desire to move faster as a "sane and rational change of course."


more

The U.S. occupation staff is concerned that time may be running out, reinforcing the need to focus on "where is the exit," a U.S. official in Baghdad said. Part of that calculation is the belief that Iraqis themselves need to see, as the official put it, "the light at the end of the tunnel."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28318-2003Nov11.html

[Spentastic]

1. Monty Python anyone?

Run Away!
Run Away!

[LittleApple81]

2. I would like to know what you are referring to. I love Monty Python

but cannot tie the reference to any particular MP work. Thanks. I love to be able to use them to counter stupid administration policy statements and other foolishness but for that I need to be able to refer to the source.

[Spentastic]

5. Holy Grail

When confronted with the rabbit.

and several other times in the film.

The trojan rabbit bit too.

[LittleApple81]

9. Thanks!

[Catfish]

3. Is Bremer on the way out?

Saw this on tpm this AM:

"Is Bremer out? Is he being promoted? Suspended? Two weeks ago the rumor was that he was trying to resign."

Then I was surprised Abizaid was advocating a return to actual war fighting.

"Almost two weeks ago now, Bremer had consultations with senior Pentagon officials. And the chatter out of those meetings said that Bremer had grown deeply pessimistic about his job in Iraq and that John Abizaid, chief of the US Central Command, was advocating some sort of decisive move back toward actual war-fighting to arrest the rapidly deteriorating security situation."

That doesn't bode well for a faster transition.

Source of above quotes:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[Alpharetta]

4. We want an Islamic state! We want an Islamic state!

Great chant.

We want an Islamic state! We want an Islamic state!

Bushies don't know what they want.

Turn it over and see it become another Islamic state and lose the oil contracts and lose the Christian fundamentalist vote.

vs.

Don't turn it over and lose the next election anyway.

[underpants]

6. I just love the criticism of the Iraqi council's "Seriousness"

"There's serious frustration about the way it's worked so far. The council has not demonstrated the ability to have a seriousness of purpose or single-mindedness about its work," a senior administration official said yesterday.

This from a White House where everyone goes home a 5 PM and no one seems to work on weekends. That is fine and dandy when you aren't the only superpower left and are supposed to be running the whole damned show. Maybe if they had put in more hours they could have seen this coming, we did.

[Catfish]

8. American infighting

I think I just read that some members of the Council are complaining that they think the main problem is American infighting.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. Bremer is meeting with War Council as we type and 2,000 lb bombs

have been dropped in Iraq...heard it an hour ago on MSNBC...just once and then the guy who reported it was gone after the break and not a word since about the US resuming 2,00 lb bombing :shrug:...i did hear that "bush is fustrated about developements in Iraq"