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To: Wolfstar
IMO and many probably disagree, but I do not believe the French and Germans are part of some "strategery". I believe they know he was the author of 9/11, the anthrax attacks and that many Iraqi "politicals" reside in their countries. I believe they have come to the conclusion that they would rather live with an Iraq armed with WMD and whatever that may entail than risk the cost of taking him out. My guess is somewhere in the back channels it has been communicated that if they play the game according to his rules they will be spared any retaliation.
55 posted on 02/15/2003 5:50:05 PM PST by riri
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To: Wolfstar
Russia, OTOH, I do not think is playing the same game.
56 posted on 02/15/2003 5:51:28 PM PST by riri
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To: riri
My guess is somewhere in the back channels it has been communicated that if they play the game according to his rules they will be spared any retaliation.

No specific communication would even be necessary. All the key players understand the forces that are in play here, the incentive structure, the carrots and the sticks.

As regards "strategery," understand that different players call for different tactics. Some players may be "in" and "on board," while others may be exploited to achieve policy ends in a more Pavlovian fashion, leveraging their known stimulus-response characteristics You see the same motifs recurring over and over again in the Bush "strategery." Consider three different aspects of the post-911 situation that he has had to finesse: the anthrax threats, the Arafat problem, and the issue of confronting Iraq. In each case, some kind of stall and/or misdirection has been necessary to avoid things going off half-cocked. In each case, leftist or anti-American forces have been unwittingly leveraged to facilitate the administration's objective. The anthrax cover story leveraged the liberal media's enthusiasm for right-wing villains, and left-wing busybody Barbara Hatch Rosenberg's fixation on the bogeyman of the "military-industrial complex." The usual suspects internationally (France, Germany) facilitated the almost imperceptible removal of Saddam's cat's paw, Arafat, from the world stage, and are now giving Bush the cover he needs to go slow over any military confrontation with Iraq. In each case, in addition to the useful idiots, there have also been aligned forces which having knowingly conspired in the stall or misdirection. In the case of the anthrax, this included, at minimum, the FBI's Operation Amerithrax and it's author, Dr. Steven Hatfill. Colin Powell played the Hatfill/fall-guy role in the Arafat strategy, pretending to be a great, hand-wringing advocate of a continued relationship with our erstwhile "partner in peace." Powell has played the same role with respect to Iraq. My guess would be that, while Powell has, at least for the time being, "uncloaked," he has passed the baton onto that old KGB man, Vladimir Putin. And Vladimir knows how to keep a secret. Notice how, even though Russia's position on Iraq is virtually identical to France's, there's not the slightest indication that has lost his faith in Putin.

I don't know whether the Schroeder and Chirac personally fall into the useful-idiot category, or the knowing-shill category. I tend to suspect the former at this point -- I think they're the Barbara Hatch Rosenberg and Nic Kristof of the big strategy. But it doesn't matter, so long as they do what we need them to do. And right now, what we need them to do is to make it look like Bush is fearless and gung-ho for war, while giving him the cover he needs to postpone this thing until we are good and ready.

58 posted on 02/15/2003 6:27:47 PM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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