Saudi Foreign Minister: Iraq Disintegrating

[Rohirrim]

Washington - Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he has been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq is hurtling toward disintegration, a development he said could drag the region into war.
"There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," he said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart."
He said he was so concerned that he was carrying this message "to everyone who will listen" in the Bush administration.
Saud's statements, some of the most pessimistic public comments on Iraq by a Middle East leader in recent months, were in stark contrast to the generally upbeat assessments that the White House and the Pentagon have been offering.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3053921


Major points to remember when Iraq comes apart and the Rove Lie Machine starts pointing fingers at those who opposed this war as the cause of its failure:

1. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
2. Bush, Cheney, Rummy & Rice lied to the American people and fanned the flames of post 9/11 fear to trick Americans into supporting this war.
3. Colin Powell has now admitted that his dog & pony show at the UN was the greatest single mistake of his life (Cheney asked him to “take one for the team”)
4. Saddam was totally contained and weaponless (as the CIA and UN inspectors warned this administration before the invasion).
5. Those in the CIA & DOD who tried to speak truth to this administration were removed from their positions, including some of our top terrorism experts. This gutting of our intelligence service in the name of ideological purity & loyalty to Bush has put our country in greater danger, not less. (Under this administration, it is more important to be loyal to him, than to be loyal to your country).
6. Military professionals fired by Rummy/Bush warned that the invasion would require 300,000 troops.
7. Under the force deployment theories of civilians like Rummy, Wolfowitz, Feith, Cheney, et al, our military services have been reduced and decimated, not strengthened. We are weaker now, militarily, than we were in 2000.

Number one lesson we should take from the Bush mal-administration?
1. Ideology is a poor substitute for competence.

[bendog]

Oddly, only the sunni have a reason to stay in a unified Iraq. The kurds were supposed to because the Turks have threatened them, but they seem undeterred from indepence and total autonomy. The shiaa don't seem to have any reason to stay, or to go. They have oil in the south. Iran will be friendly towards them, but there's no reason to fear invasion unless their clerics clash openly with Irans. Sistani is supposedly less interested in running everyday political operations than they are in Iraq, but it'll still be no law that the clerics don't approve of.

And they all hate each other. The unifying factor was they all hate dth US more than each other. So for that we spend 400bil and 2K dead.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Does this mean we can come home now?

[bendog]

Pat Roberts tolk Negroponte to plan on having the Iraqis man the barricades next year ....before congressional elections.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

It's not just the Saudi Foreign Minister - many officials in our own governement have tried to bring Little Caligula the same sort of news and have been canned for their trouble.

Bubble Boy has made it very clear that he doesn't want to hear bad news.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

What to Do About the Bush Problem

The stark question now before the country is: Should it sit still for the next three-plus years of Bush’s presidency or demand accountability, including possibly the removal of him and his political team from office?

Though it’s true that impeachment of both Bush and Cheney would be an extreme step, this constitutional option must be judged against the alternative of a continued national leadership that is facing worsening crises while known for a trademark refusal to admit mistakes or to make meaningful adjustments to its policies.

Over and over, Bush has made clear that he has no intention to reverse himself on any of his core decisions, which include the Iraq War, tax cuts weighted toward the upper incomes, tolerance of record budget deficits and rejection of the chief international agreement on global warming, the Kyoto Treaty. (Bush even questions the overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming.)

So, the hard choice is whether the country would be better off starting this political battle now with an eye toward a change in control of Congress in 2006 or simply waiting for the next presidential election in 2008.

Continued:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/092305.html

http://www.bartcop.com/not-crony.gif

[W*GS]

Of course, the only thing the Saudis fear more than an Iraq ripped by civil war is a reasonably democratic and reasonably secular Iraq. That would do more to reveal just how illegitimate and corrupt the Saudi regime is. The removal of Saddam from power and the shockwaves that has caused in the authoritarian governments of the Arab world will be interesting to watch over the coming decades. Those governments are being pressured to change, by their own people for the most part.

[Rohirrim]

Of course, the only thing the Saudis fear more than an Iraq ripped by civil war is a reasonably democratic and reasonably secular Iraq. That would do more to reveal just how illegitimate and corrupt the Saudi regime is. The removal of Saddam from power and the shockwaves that has caused in the authoritarian governments of the Arab world will be interesting to watch over the coming decades. Those governments are being pressured to change, by their own people for the most part.

Realistically, anybody who thinks that democracy has any chance in Iraq right now is living in dreamland. Anybody who thinks secularism will take hold in Iraq is drinking the koolaid. As far as authoritarian regimes go, Iran knows that it is now stronger and more secure than at anytime in its history and is acting with aggression, arrogance and confidence, knowing that the pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq is a foregone conclusion, followed by, in all liklihood, a Shiite dominated Islamic fundamentalist nation allied with them. That's what the Saudi's fear, much more than any "revelations" of their corruption. North Korea has already won the concessions it wanted from Bush, and will win more.

It is clear to the world that the U.S. has not only played the wrong hand, but played it with incompetence and ignorance. Not only that, the Bush administration, by playing this hand, has revealed American military weakness to the world. That perception of weakness will do more to damage America in the future than anything Saddam or Osama could have dreamed up in their wildest fantasies. The neocon revolution has been the largest concordance of fools in American history and we will all pay for their stupidity.

[bendog]

I think the house of saud reasonably fears a shiia theorcracy alinged, and oweing its survival to Iran, posed on its doorstep. I'm nervous too.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

I think the house of saud reasonably fears a shiia theorcracy alinged, and oweing its survival to Iran, posed on its doorstep. I'm nervous too.

Just think: Bush has spent a half a trillion dollars (of your kids' and grandkids' money) to create just that.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Just think: Bush has spent a half a trillion dollars (of your kids' and grandkids' money) to create just that.
No matter what happens after Oct. 15th the outlook is bleak. A Iraq theocracy will be our only legacy from our attempt at nation building.
If the constitution is approved both sunnis and some sh*ites said they will not recognize it. If it is voted down the whole process is finished and would have to be started from the very beginning again.

[bendog]

But, had we attempted a political solution, involving Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE, Algeria, to the potential threat of Saddam to the region and the world, we might have achieved a different result. Time for the adults to be in charge again, be they brent snowcrofts or holbrooke/albrights.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

No matter what happens after Oct. 15th the outlook is bleak. A Iraq theocracy will be our only legacy from our attempt at nation building.
If the constitution is approved both sunnis and some sh*ites said they will not recognize it. If it is voted down the whole process is finished and would have to be started from the very beginning again.

Bingo.

America is running out of time

Iraq War Winners: Al-Qaeda, Iran and Military Contractors

George W. Bush will go down in history as the president who fiddled while America lost its superpower status.

Bush used deceit and hysteria to lead America into a war that is bleeding the US economically, militarily, and diplomatically. The war is being fought with hundreds of billions of dollars borrowed from foreigners. The war is bleeding the military of troops and commitments. The war has ended the US claim to moral leadership and exposed the US as a reckless and aggressive power.

Focused on a concocted "war on terrorism," the Bush administration diverted money from the New Orleans levees to Iraq, with the consequence that the US now has a $100 billion rebuild bill on top of the war bill.

The US is so short of troops that neoconservatives are advocating the use of foreign mercenaries paid with US citizenship.

US efforts to isolate Iran have been blocked by Russia and China, nuclear powers that Bush cannot bully.

The Iraqi war has three beneficiaries: (1) al Qaeda, (2) Iran and (3) US war industries and Bush-Cheney cronies who receive no-bid contracts.

Continued: http://counterpunch.org/roberts09262005.html