Let the word go out!

From the Washington Post article, U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq: (restructured to outline form, emp add)

The Bush administration is:

• significantly lowering expectations
• shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning

The Bush administration is acknowledging:

• the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned
• we will have some form of Islamic republic
• they misread the strength of the sentiment among Kurds and Shiites to create a special status
• When we finally depart, it will probably be for us [and not for the Iraqi's]
• most damage was from looting [after the invasion][and not Saddam], which took down state industries, large private manufacturing, the national electric" system.

The Bush administration no longer expects:

• a model new democracy
• a self-supporting oil industry
• a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges
• Iraq's oil revenue paying many post-invasion expenses
• the ability [of Iraq] to build a robust self-sustaining economy

The Bush administration's goal is

• a constitution that can be easily amended later so Iraq can grow into a democracy, U.S. officials say.

Wow!


posted by Quiddity at 8/14/2005 02:10:00 PM