In Iraq, the Americans are preparing to withdraw their troops in a much more organized fashion than the invasion. Every day, generals and diplomats are ever-more precise about the number of troops to be brought back in three, six or twelve months.
The reason behind this is that the battle has actually shifted from Fallujah to Washington DC.
in a fever over the fall in popularity of George Bush and with opinion surveys showing that the public has had enough of a war that has killed 2,108 soldiers to date.
hmmm…Factual reporting of numbers in an overseas newspaper…
more below
After the referendum on the Constitution, the legislative elections in three weeks will be the last stage on the path to forming a sovereign Iraqi government that Washington will be able to entrust operational responsibility. And thus will be able begin its withdrawal.
Yeah, right!! Especially after reading this:
the United States has given up
With Katrina, ‘Plamegate’ the situation in Iraq and ‘the rash of scandal’ spreading, Bush’s poll numbers have never been lower. He is even accused of having misled Congress and the nation about Saddam and his WMDs. According to this op-ed article from the Tunis Hebdo of Tunisia, ‘the crook Nixon fell flat on his face for less than that.’
There’s more:
Three years ago, Bush enjoyed an approval rating of 70% in pursuit of his unjust, crudely-conducted war against Iraq. Today, current polls show his popularity to have shrunk, like so much untanned leather, to a mere 34%! One of the lowest approval ratings of any president in the history of the United States.This dramatic drop – which bodes ill for the White House’s current occupant – is primarily due to the deteriorating situation in Iraq, where GIs have been caught in the quagmire of guerrilla warfare, suffering heavy losses to both personnel and material. Besides, each week brings with it further developments which only serve to further darken an already bleak media landscape.
and
Above all, there is the spreading rash of scandal, from the lack of judgment in dealing with Hurricane Katrina, to the use of banned weapons like white phosphorous against the inhabitants of Falluja, to the revelations of “Plamegate” which included the indictment of close aides to [Vice President] Dick Cheney.
According to Senator John Kerry,
“It would be difficult to name a member of government with less credibility regarding Iraq than the Vice President.”
Third,
there are the thunderous “indiscretions” concerning the existence of 24 secret prisons scattered about the world, including Europe and the Arab countries, managed by the CIA (today’s “globetrotting torturer”), and where heavy-handed interrogations have been carried out on some 3,000 suspected Islamic terrorists. The total number of kills attributed to these fiendish centers has already reached 108, in addition to the 150 kidnappings [extraordinary renditions] carried out in Third World countries. All crimes that have been insincerely condemned by decision makers of the countries hosting American security forces, either “voluntarily or against their wishes”: Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Morocco, etc. Investigations have been launched in Italy and Germany.
Interestingly enough,
Several Senators have completely changed positions. After having fervently supported the war in Iraq, they today loudly renounce their previous stands in the columns of such prestigious newspapers as The Washington Post by stating “I was wrong” and explaining that their earlier votes “rested on deeply erroneous, not to say manipulated, intelligence.” These numerous reversals have raised the pressure on the hawks close to Bush, who face a particularly rough ride ahead. Already, the Senate has begun to demand periodic progress reports from the president on the war in Iraq: “Every three months, until all American combat units have left Iraq, the president will deliver to Congress a public report on American policy and operations in Iraq.”… For the first time, and for the same impetus, Republicans and Democrats have declared themselves massively in favor of a resolution specifying that “2006 must mark an important transition towards full Iraqi sovereignty … creating the necessary conditions for a progressive withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.”
About damn time!!!!!!!!!!!
