Fresh on the heels of his
unsubtle hint that he would oppose any measure by the Iraqi governing council to draft a constitution based on Islamic law, Bremer announced, today, that the June 30 power-transfer date is
firm and unchangable.
"Changes are possible but the date holds," Bremer told reporters, adding that there were "dozens" of methods for selecting the government that would assume control.
Among the options he was a redesigned "caucus" system or partial elections.
"There are literally dozens of ways to carry out this complicated task," he said. "I invite your attention to how complicated it is."
Bremer is a puppet whose strings are pulled by Washington, and his masters are set on creating a crisis. Iraq has turned out to be a far cry from the neocon wet dream of Middle East hegemony. Contrarily, it has turned out to be a) strategically difficult to subdue, and b) having no easily-obtained long-term benefits. Hence the need for a crisis. With Iraq slipping into civil war, the Bushies can still claim they fulfilled their promise to the American people by assuring that power is transferred to the Iraqis on June 30, even if all hell breaks loose on July 1. Bush'll be wearing the "I freed the Iraqis" button 24/7 from then until November. Furthermore, if the UN steps in to avert the crisis, Bush can lay claim to the "internationalize Iraq" mantle, and, if things do go bad, spin the blame onto the UN for not stepping in earlier. On top of that, if, once more, Iraq does slide into civil war, the neocons can revive the "flypaper strategy". I can hear it now, "By insisting that the Iraqis set up a non-Islamic, secular democracy, the Bush Administration has assured that Islamic terrorists will be drawn to Iraq in order to create a theocratic state. Each terrorist attack in Iraq is an attack that didn't happen here. We've got them right where we want them." Who wants to bet that we'd have another invasion on our hands in 2005 or 2006, if Bush gets reelected?