Bush Administration Negotiating With "Last Throes" Terrorists In Iraq
by Steve
(Graphic courtesy of the Post)
"Why would you say to the enemy, you know, here's a timetable; well, just go ahead and wait us out?"
--Bush, last Friday, rejecting anything that could give comfort to the insurgents
"We're not going to win against the insurgency. The Iraqi people are going to win against the insurgency. That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years."
--Rummy, yesterday on Fox
After flatly rejecting a timeline for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq because setting such a timeline would tell the insurgents that they’re winning, the Bush Administration was exposed yesterday for conducting face-to-face talks with those same insurgents to find a way out of the quagmire. The Sunday Times of London reported that on more than one occasion this month, senior military, intelligence, and even a congressional staffer have met with insurgent leaders looking for a way out of the mess in Iraq.
So after hearing Karl Rove trash Democrats for wanting to go soft on terrorists, why is it OK for the White House to demonstrate weakness and negotiate with ”terrorists” now, sending the insurgents a message that we are looking for a way out of this “last throes” insurgency?
Maybe its because the brass have finally convinced Rummy that we don’t have the troops now or in the future to stick this out for years, despite the bluster over the weekend that we will, and the new attempt at “the world is really gray” nuance from Rummy, and notwithstanding the hopefulness from the Iraqis that 2 years is enough. Perhaps it’s because Rove has told W that the idea of having our troops tied down in Iraq for more than a decade will kill off the GOP, and that Rove knows the public already doesn’t buy the happy talk from the White House about Iraq. And perhaps it’s because Rove already knows that any move to reinstate the draft to prop up the Iraq mission would kill the GOP, because 70% of Americans are against it.
It reeks of simplemindedness for the Administration to be claiming out loud that these talks are to drive a wedge between the foreign-led terrorists and the native Sunni insurgents, as well as to bring the Sunnis into the political process . To stop their attacks and their partnership with Al-Qaeda, what would the Sunnis demand from the US? Well, probably a timeline for withdrawal, piles of cash, and of yeah, American support for these same Sunni militias to go after the Shia. In other words, we’d have to offer the Sunnis a return to power and cash, and a commitment to help them go after their countrymen and to get out of their country, things that the White House itself says would destabilize the whole enterprise.
Despite the strong talk from Bush and Cheney, the remarks from the Iraqi PM today that two more years is enough, and the confirmation that we are talking with the insurgents about how to buy them off tells you that Bush is looking for a way out of this. The hypocrisy of Rove blasting Democrats one week for being weak on terrorism, only to see a week later Bush signaling that he wants out of Iraq by talking with "terrorists" is galling, but not unexpected from this crew and behavior he learned from his father.
Bush and Rove are looking for a way out, because the administration that claims it doesn’t read polls in fact reads them as well as anyone else.
