Long but good assessment of Iraq -
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-01/10bennis.cfm
ZNet
ON THE EVE OF BUSH'S "NEW DIRECTION:" Desperately Seeking Victory January 10, 2007
By Phylis Bennis
** Bush's "new direction" will escalate the war by deploying thousands more U.S. combat troops, sending potentially a billion dollars in economic support aid into Iraq, and putting more blame for the occupation's failure on Iraqis themselves.
** The strategy differs very little from the existing one, except to make things worse; more troops mean more violence, not less; the money is too little and too late, and it can do nothing while U.S. troops continue their military occupation and Iraq remains at war.
** The Bush administration is desperately seeking a new strategy to buy them either something they can call a "victory" or at least a long enough delay to insure that Bush's successor takes the blame for the failure. The current strategy of military occupation and political backing of an artificial and largely powerless government in Iraq has failed so massively that even top generals have refused to get on board Bush's latest call for escalation.
** The debate over a "new direction" emerges just as the Iraqi parliament is preparing legislation that would allow foreign (especially U.S.) oil companies to control as much as 70% of the profit in future oil exploration.
** Elsewhere in the region U.S.-orchestrated UN sanctions on Iran appear to have had little impact so far except to encourage increasingly explicit Israeli military (and even nuclear) threats; Palestine continues to burn, and the occupation-driven humanitarian and political crises in Gaza continue to escalate.
** The Democrats won the November elections with a mandate to find a new direction OUT of Iraq, not to send more troops INTO Iraq; but it remains uncertain whether they will use the only actual power they have - the power of the purse - to actually stop the war.
** There are some hopeful signs, including the Pelosi/Reid letter demanding the beginning of a troop withdrawal, and the moving of Iraq-related hearings to much higher priority and visibility; but there are reasons for pessimism too, including the lack of even a hint of teeth in the Pelosi/Reid letter and Pelosi's follow-up commitment not to cut funds, the virtual absence of experts supporting an immediate and complete end to occupation in the hearings line-up, and Biden's completely false claim that it might be "unconstitutional" for Congress to move to de-fund the war.
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