According to today's Washington Post, the administration has decided to lower the bar for what can and can't be accomplished in Iraq.
The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.
The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.
"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."
After firing Gen. Eric Shinseki for correctly predicting how many troops we'd need and forcing out Larry Lindsey for correctly predicting how much this would cost and destroying Richard Clarke for correctly noting how flawed their assumptions were and generally branding as a "traitor" anyone who pointed out how off-base they were, the war planners have finally realized they were operating in an "unreality"?
Hey, no problem. That's why pencils have erasers. I mean, it's not like anyone got hurt.
5 comments:
You'd be amazed what a 34% approval rating will change
True. Great Frank Rich column today, noting that Bush is right where LBJ was in the polls -- right after Tet and right before he announced he wouldn't run for re-election.
Bush has got to be scared. I wouldn't be surprised if his next press conference -- which would be when? early 2007? -- ends with a ever-widening stain of fear-pee spreading across his pants.
When did this Administration hire the Clinton PR staff???
"absorbing the factors of the situation we're in" -- a.k.a. starting to be honest
"shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning" -- a.k.a admitting we were WRONG.
They have to speak that way. If anyone in the administration says the word "mistake," their heads would explode like Yul Brenner in "Westworld."
"Shedding the Unreality" will be the title of my next album.
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