"This is entirely a schedule dictated by Karl Rove."
That's from an unnamed Arab diplomat who continued, "Anyone who thnks otherwise is naive."
The reference, of course, is to the Administration's determination to turn control of Iraq to an Iraqi authority no later than June 30.
This from a Steven Weisman story in today's New York Times.
Weisman quotes unnamed Administration officials, too, saying that June 30 is dictated by the politics of reelection.
It is impossible to overestimate this Administration's duplicity.
Manipulating 9/11, they broadened a proper response to alQaeda (and Afghanistan's Taliban government) into a "war on terrorism," then used that "Crusade" to implement a pre-existing geo-political scheme that called for war on Iraq.
Afraid to talk about that grand strategy, the Administration used and misused intelligence to set up the WMD rationale. They told us the war would be cheap, the Iraqis would cheer and pay for their own liberation with their oil.
So here we are. Having spent the lives of some 550 young soldiers so far, we still have not ended the Iraqi resistance, the risk of civil war grows and we are faced with years of supporting Iraq financially.
The war was a terrible error. In perpetrating it, we made ourselves responsible for that country. That means we need more US troops to protect those already in the field and those Iraqis dependent on us - Rumsfeld's denial notwithstanding.
Further, we will need to stay years to rebuild that nation and keep it from falling into anarchy or dictatorship. (Democracy? It's not in the cards.)
By bugging out early, Bush compounds his first mistake. Fact is, he assumed new responsibilities for the nation in order to become a "war president."
But responsibility is not what motives this Administration. Political calculations rule. Calculations dictated by Karl Rove.