WH officials admit Democracy may not work in Irag!

[rodeodance]

......Bush administration officials now admit that Iraqi government’s original plan to rein in the violence in Baghdad, announced in June, has failed. The Pentagon has decided to rush more American troops into the capital, and the new military operation to restore security there is expected to begin in earnest next month.

Yet some outside experts who have recently visited the White House said Bush administration officials were beginning to plan for the possibility that Iraq’s democratically elected government might not survive.

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.

“Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect,” the expert said, “but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.” .......

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17military.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Where's Irag? nt

[arwalden]

24. Good Catch!

:rofl:

[rodeodance]

2. This is bombshell news to me--WH is actually talking "alternatives"

[BurtWorm]

5. How about George Bush, Dictator-Decider of Iraq

Effective immediately. His throne can be somewhere on a sidewalk in Sadr City.

[MallRat]

3. "Spreading the wings of marginally-benign dictatorship across the world!"

:eyes:

[Avalux]

4. You don't say!

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy"

Um.......didn't they have an election and don't they have a government chosen by the people? Who is our government to DECIDE an alternative????

[yurbud]

6. It might not work if success is described as obebience to us, Israel, and

US oil companies.

Otherwise, it should work about as well as anywhere else.


It's ironic that as soon as people show that they are smart enough to see through the facade of democracy and demand the real thing, they are accused of being neanderthals who have only recently descended from the trees and shed their tails.

[kenny blankenship]

7. So now our dollars and soldiers' lives will be profligately spent on

propping up a dictatorship of the Shia prelates, the first Shia Islamic Revolutionary gov't west of Iran.

[Jim__]

8. "...they are considering alternatives other than democracy..."

Yep. Saddam by a different name.

[Jacobin]

9. Gee, ya think? We can't bomb them into democracy?

Heck.
Darn.

[rodeodance]

11. This is an admission of DEFEAT for his ME policy!

[KansDem]

18. Here we go again!

"Mission Accomplished"

Welcome aboard all you liberated Iraqis! Please dump your liquids before boarding! Thank you!

[Jacobin]

22. I remember that picture like it was yesterday

(showing my age)

Too bad the neo-cons didn't remember that picture.

[warrens]

10. Why should THEY have democracy?

All this means is their lapdogs are turning on them, and they need new lapdogs, probably someone who looks a lot like Saddam Hussein.

[bluerum]

12. But Iraqi's are better off. Than they were before. I mean than when

Saddam was in power. The Iraqi's that are still alive and healthy that is - they are better off. Well, let me qualify - those Iraqi's that live far away from the civil violence and are still alive and healthy are much better off than when Saddam was in power. Maybe.

They are now truly independent of the burdens that civilization imposes. Like, electricity. A functioning economy. And running water. And an organized community police that answers to municipal authority.

Ahhh,, true independence on a wild frontier.

Well anyway - we are safer in this country. There are no more WMD's in Iraq - if there ever were any they are now in much safer hands. And the terra-ista dead-enders are on the run.

And we can rest well knowing that we have spent and continue to spend untold billions of dollars on making Iraq what it is today.

[underpants]

13. Oh well nice try anyway

:grr:

[bigtree]

14. they don't believe in it here in America

I'm not surprised to see them bailing on it in Iraq

[OregonBlue]

15. Alternative=Military Junta!

[michaelvail]

16. Courting Disaster: Getting into bed with autocratic regimes

So what do you call the brutal dictator of Iraq who rapes, tortures and murders at will?

If you're president George H. Bush, you call him "friend."

Up until July of 1990, Saddam enjoyed the favor of the U.S. with billions of dollars of credit, U.S. military technology and hardware and a continued dialogue with the White House that operated on a foundation of friendship with Iraq. Yet, within the span of eight days, Saddam's friendship with Bush went from high hopes declared by U.S. Ambassador on July 25, 1990 to Hitleresque characterizations of Saddam by president Bush on August 2, 1990.

http://www.thought-criminal.org/2006/08/17/courting-disaster-getting-into-bed-with-autocratic-regimes/

[Fridays Child]

17. Are they also admitting that Iraq does not run its own government?

Are they saying that the so-called unity government doesn't control Iraq's political future? It sure looks that way: "Administration officials are considering alternatives other than democracy."

So, given the Republican penchant for right wing dictatorships, does anyone really doubt what's coming for Iraqis? As the last tattered and specious excuse for the invasion is now disappearing like a mirage, it's becoming more and more apparent that they really were better off under Saddam Hussein.

[Perky]

19. If true. The NEOCON dogma is dead

Very clearly. the idea behind the rush to war and the lies about WMD was ultimately a that a democratric power broker in the middle east would change the character of the anger at the crusaders and it would inturn replace help build a tolerant middle class If they Admit to the failure of Deomcracy in Iraq and effectively install a new strongman. The movement will be completely discredited.

[paparush]

20. Can we just move W** over there, permanently? Let him work his magic..

[Mir]

21. You know, actually

the best person for the job is Saddam himself. Perhaps Rummy can return to Iraq and shake his old friend's hand AGAIN, offer a heartfelt apology and Bushler's best wishes and full support and then encourage his old friend to get down to the business of restoring order so that the president can focus on "spreading democracy" to Syria and Iran. What a bunch of fucking dipshits.

[boolean]

23. Great!

Maybe they ought to bring back Saddam.

[kentuck]

25. Basically, since that was the primary reason for war after no WMDs...

They are admitting failure...F-A-I-L-U-R-E...failure.