Obviously Bush wants to drawn down troops at least somewhat before the November elections. And obviously the Iraqis aren't "standing up so we can stand down". What to do, what to do?
Well, here's a brief article by Sidney Blumenthal that says they're forcing State Department FSOs (Foreign Service Officers) to go to Iraq and head up Provisional Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
They are being forced to go because no one is volunteering. And the military won't protect them (of course, because they want to draw down the forces). So they're being told to use mercenaries to provide security.
Foreign service officers, as a rule, are self-abnegating in serving any administration. The state department's Intelligence and Research Bureau was correct in its scepticism before the war about Saddam Hussein's possession of WMDs, but was ignored. The department was correct in its assessment in its 17-volume Future of Iraq project about the immense effort required for reconstruction after the war, but it was disregarded. Now its reports from Iraq are correct, but their authors are being punished. Foreign service officers are to be sent out like tethered goats to the killing fields. When these misbegotten projects inevitably fail, the department will be blamed. Passive resistance to these assignments reflects anticipation of impending disaster, including the likely murder of diplomats.
And Condi? She's washing her hands of her own department.
Amid this internal crisis of credibility, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has washed her hands of her department. Her management skills are minimal. Now she has left coercing people to fill the PRTs to her counsellor, Philip Zelikow, who, by doing the dirty work, is trying to keep her reputation clean.
You'd think by now I'd be inured to this an it wouldn't be shocking any more. But yet again, I am stunned by the depths to which this 'administration' will sink.