The Handover: Will Dems blame Bush for it?
by JohnHuang2
Democrats predicted it wouldn't happen. So it happened early -- two days early, on June 28, precisely. (Which means Democrats will insist they were right -- there was no planned Handover on June 30). In a brief ceremony which stunned the world, the U.S. granted sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Monday, bringing the 14-month old occupation of Iraq by brutal, evil, ruthless, heartless, infidels -- Halliburton and Dick Cheney (see Michael Moore) -- formally to an end. (If you think that's something -- just wait for the planned handover of power from liberals to conservatives over CNN/MSNBC/ABC/CBS/NBC on June 30, 2525).
Now, I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade here, but anybody who thinks the handover means clear-and-smooth sailing from here on must be smoking some funny weed. Going forward, things are bound to get worse. Much worse. In the months ahead, expect mounting problems and setbacks and losses and challenges and headaches and letdowns and comedowns -- for the Kerry campaign, which felt badly out-maneuvered yet again. The Kerryites, already plagued by daily good news on the economy, were shaken by the news from Baghdad, news which could signal a growing threat to Quagmire there, stoking Democrat anxiety here. Without Quagmire, a successful handover of power from Bush to Kerry next November appears all but impossible. Monday marked a day of great sorrow for the French-looking one, but for America and Bush's approach of Going-It-Alone with 32 countries, Monday marked a day of vindication.
Attending a summit meeting of NATO leaders in Turkey, President Bush called it a day of "Great hope for Iraqis and a day that terrorist enemies hoped never to see. The terrorists are doing all they can to stop the rise of a free Iraq. But their bombs and attacks have not prevented Iraqi sovereignty. They will not prevent Iraqi democracy."
Bush noted that, months after liberation and days ahead of schedule, "the world witnessed the arrival of a full sovereign and free Iraq." With news of the handover, NATO leaders agreed to help train Iraq's fledgling security forces -- another coup for Bush designed to disrupt the handover of power in Iraq to al-Qaeda (which Democrats insist has no ties to Iraq). With the handover and NATO agreement under his belt, this was clearly no way for Bush to run the most inept and reckless foreign policy in modern history (see Kerry). With the march towards freedom undeterred, Bush brazenly failed to get it wrong! Kerry, who blasted Bush's "ill-advised" war in a speech Monday, voted for Bush's "ill-advised" war in 2002, though he notes that the reason he did this is because he had no idea a vote for war meant a vote for war.
In Baghdad, one by one, members of Iraq's interim government stepped forward to take their oaths, each placing their a hand on a book titled, 'My Life,' -- oops, I meant the Koran. Afterward, Allawi outlined his goals for Iraq in a speech which strangely said nothing about raising taxes on the wealthy nor enacting 'affordable' health care schemes at a bargain basement $900 billion.
Look, don't get me wrong: Bush is not out of the woods. Not yet. Militants, who for months have waged a steady campaign of attacks on Coalition forces, aren't about to close up shop just yet. The attacks will likely continue as militants grow ever more desperate. Indeed, hours after the handover, a militant by the name of Richard Holbrooke unleashed a volley of attacks in a CNN interview, blasting the war as "disastrous". He denounced the secrecy of the handover ceremony, which barely 5 billion people knew about before it happened. The harsh criticism was the first in a wave of attacks since the handover. Or how about that militant Howard Dean? "I think we still don't know whether the Iraqi people are better off or not," he sneered. (Saddam slaughtered more than a million, gassed and tortured and mutilated and jailed hundreds of thousands, ran rape rooms, and filled mass graves. So, what's not to like?)
In a statement to the press, Kerry, for his part, congratulated U.S. troops for doing a splendid job in Iraq. Kerry also blasted Bush as the reason U.S. troops are doing a crummy job in Iraq. (At least Saddam made the trains run on time). Dean touted a pre-handover Gallup poll which showed 51% of Americans now saying the war was a 'mistake'. (Another pre-handover poll, this one by Fox News, shows 50% of Americans saying this 'mistake' was the right thing to do, and they fully support this 'mistake' of going to war. That figure hasn't changed since early April). And now that the 9/11 Commission says there was no Collaborative Relationship between Saddam and al-Qaeda, Americans are convinced there was a Collaborative Relationship between Saddam and al-Qaeda, 56%-28%.
In any event, Holbrooke angrily dismissed the handover as a ploy (pay no attention to the Quagmire behind the curtain!), saying the fact that it came days ahead of schedule is proof we're not making progress there. Two-hundred and twenty-eight days ago (on Nov. 15, 2003), the U.S. announced the handover would occur on Day 228; the fact that it was moved way, waaaay up to Day 226 shows how Bush policy has failed. Holbrooke notes that Bush has not done enough to impose security in Iraq. Holbrooke and others also accuse Bush of over-regulating Iraq and being heavy-handed. Reuters reports that L. Paul Bremer, "As Iraq's highest authority," had "issued more than 100 orders and regulations, many of them Western-style laws governing everything from bankruptcy and traffic, to restrictions on child labor and copying movies.
"One law requires at least a month in jail for people caught driving without a license," another "demands that drivers stay in a single lane..." Some are very, very controversial -- like the one prohibiting groups from buying ads that even mention candidates just before an election ... oh wait, that's McCain-Feingold.
So, in one fell-swoop, Bush a) out-foxed the media b) out-foxed the "insurgents" c) out-foxed the pundits d) popped the 'Blood-For-Oil' balloon and e) sucked the winds out of the sails of the Kerry campaign, driving the skanky, scuzzy, slimey dregs of the loony-Left loonier still -- all of this just the opening act to a brand new and free Iraq.
Next up: The Saddam trial.
Don't you love it when a Quagmire comes together so deliciously?
God bless our President, God bless our troops and God bless the United States of America!
Anyway, that's...
My two cents.. "JohnHuang2"
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