Heritage Foundation, AEI, pro-war Iraqi exiles rue the day they met Bush

[swag]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7e70a06a-3a72-11da-b0d3-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=2.html

Over the past week, two of Washington's most influential conservative think-tanks, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Heritage Foundation, held conferences on Iraq where the mood among speakers, including Iraqi officials, was decidedly sombre.

Kanan Makiya, an outspoken proponent of the war who is documenting the horrors of the Saddam regime in his Iraq Memory Foundation, opened the AEI meeting by admitting to many “dashed dreams”.

He said he and other opposition figures had seriously underestimated the powers of ethnic and sectarian self-interest, as well as the survivability of the “constantly morphing and flexible” Ba'ath party. He also blamed the Bush administration for poor planning and committing too few troops.

The proposed constitution, to be taken to a referendum on Saturday, was a “profoundly destabilising document” that could “deal a death blow” to Iraq, he said.

The constitution was a recipe for greater chaos, said Rend Rahim, a former exile who had been designated as Iraq's first postwar ambassador to the US. Unless revised, it would lead to such a devolution of power that the central government would barely exist, she said.

. . . more

[Fenris]

1. Pardon me...

:rofl:

*cough*

Sorry...

[Trajan]

2. Two Important Points ...

1) The AEI are the ideological grandparents of the PNAC ... The members of the PNAC are primarily AEI alumni ....

Hell: the PNAC's offices reside INSIDE the AEI building .....

This is nothing but crocodile tears .... A self serving mea culpa that rues the loss of easy riches instead of a lack of civil society in Iraq ....

2) With a weak central government, foreign corporations, such as Chervon Texaco and/or BP/Arco and or Bechtel/Halliburton, et al ad infinitum ...

THESE corps will have the ability to sign agreements with REGIONAL governments, which a weak federal state could not overturn .... They would sign with the Kurds to 'develop' Kirkuk without concern over what the Sunni or Shiite muslims thought ....

This was probably the plan from the start, or at least a gem they blundered into on the way to fucking up everything they touch ....

Funny how the more they lose, the more they win .....

[bonito]

3. despicable

but they would still have to deal with Turkey if they show favor to the Kurds.

[Botany]

5. Oh my god you are right

1150 E 17th St 20036 both

AEI = PNAC Well I think I should go to AEI/PNAC and pass out
enlistment forms.

[swag]

6. That would be 1150 17th St NW.

Two blocks over from the Washington Post, of course.

Lots of douchebags at 1150 17th NW, wanting to rob you blind and fuck you over under the guise of "free enterprise."

[July]

4. BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS.

And now they want a "whoopsie" for living in a fantasy land?

WE knew there was no plan, WE knew it wouldn't work.

Tens of thousands of dead Iraqis later, 2000 dead Americans later, billions of dollars later, they're somber? Cry me a fucking river.

[swag]

7. A kick before dying.