Looks like the American media has finally caught up to their overseas counterparts on what the Bush Administration is trying to get away with in Iraq with a Status of Forces Agreement. And the Iraqis aren’t going along. In short, the Prime Minister isn’t happy with us anymore. His political supporters aren’t going along with our original demands. They’re questioning whether we’re needed as much anymore. And Bush has retreated with a watered-down agreement over the weekend.
The new Bush proposal may still not go far enough, because it still grants American forces free use of Iraqi air space and the use of dozens of bases on Iraqi soil. Plus, the Post confirms that the administration is blackmailing the Iraqis into signing something quickly by still holding our alleged allies to the same financial restrictions we imposed upon Saddam Hussein. The Iraqis for their part will not let the Americans use their bases or airspace for any attack against Iran, and appear to want a greatly reduced American security presence after December…
I think it’s over for the Neoconservative Republican Party. Like their hated Communist Bloc, they’re collapsing under the weight of their own incompetence, and I don’t think there’s a thing they can do about it. They’ve ignored our economy and our domestic issues, and we’re falling hard as anyone might predict. A free-market economy needs regulatory structures to put checks on greed and corruption. The Republicans have eroded those regulatory forces in the service of pandering to the business community that supports them, and we’re all suffering the consequences. They’ve dirty tricked us into a callousness where their nasty schemes are less virulent. And in the area of foreign policy, we’re "feared out." They may rally here and there, but not for long. They’re becoming almost ready for a chapter in the history book.
In Steve Soto’s piece above, the Iraqis see right through Bush’s scheme and are saying "No thanks." They know that in five months, they can cut a deal that’s mutually beneficial, instead of get screwed by Bush and Cheney [along with the American people]. I think Americans will do the same thing. The Neoconservatives put together an unholy coalition of Businessmen, Fundamentalists, Political Right Wingers, and enhanced it with a big dose of fear – fear of evil foreigners, fear of hippies, fear of liberals, fear of brown people, fear of whatever. It’s not working any more, and it’s not going to work.
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