If June 30 handover goes badly, it could mean mission failure in Iraq

By Associated Press
Sunday, May 23, 2004
President Bush is trying to calm anxieties about rising casualties and spreading violence in Iraq by promising to cede political power to an interim government of Iraqis on June 30, which the president insists will put that country firmly on a path to democracy.

In a Monday night speech, Bush will lay out details of the transfer at a time when his approval ratings are at the lowest level of his presidency and just six months before he faces the verdict of American voters on a second term.
Snip…
"The problem is we have failed to win fast enough," said Tom Donnelly, a national defense and security expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization.

"The belief that people used to have that George Bush was the right kind of guy to lead the country in time of war is slipping," and "the need to do something pretty significant is pretty great," Donnelly said. (my comment: what is the deal with the word pretty in this quote?)

Snip…

James Cunningham, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, says the new resolution will not order an indefinite extension of the multinational force, but it won't propose a time limit either. “We're going to be there no matter what,” Gen. John Abizaid, commander of American troops in the Middle East, told Congress.

The administration will spin it as Iraqi's in control. Yeah, right. :eyes:

The same MINDLESS ZOMBIE Americans who believed Iraq was behind 9/11 will also believe that we are "out of Iraq."

There never was any chance for it to succeed.

eom