You do know Bush says Iraq
elections will take place Jan 30. And that
more troops are needed (I guess because we're 'winning'). If they don't exist, will the ones there stay there? Hmmm... 'support the troops' apparently means different things to different folks.
As a prelude to making rebuilding possible, Iraqi debt will be forgiven.
PARIS, Nov. 21 - The world's leading industrial nations agreed Sunday to cancel 80 percent of the nearly $39 billion debt owed them by Iraq, a critical step in rebuilding the country's devastated economy and an important precedent for its other creditors to follow.
The agreement, after a year of intense lobbying by the United States, puts pressure on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq's other Middle Eastern neighbors to forgive obligations owed them, including billions in reparations Iraq owes from the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
The Bush administration welcomed the agreement as evidence that relations between the United States and its European allies, frayed over disagreements on Iraq, remain fundamentally strong.
This is a necessary but not sufficient step towards some resolution, but like the elections, without security, there will be no progress.
Internationaizing the situation is the only possible thing to do. Juan Cole says:
The interim government of Iyad Allawi set the elections for Jan. 30, on Sunday. Even as the announcement was made, major violence broke out in Ramadi and Latifiyah, strong Sunni Arab areas, leaving some 22 persons dead on Sunday.
The next stage is the meeting of the neighboring states plus the US and the UK at Sharm al-Sheikh, where the Bush administration is finally seeking to internationalize the Iraq crisis instead of keeping it for Washington. Iran says it will attend, but will insist on calling for a US withdrawal from Iraq. In contrast, Egypt is afraid that a sudden US withdrawal would leave Iraq in chaos.
Use as an open thread on Iraq.
