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11/03/2003 12:26:00 PM | Brad Plumer

That darn quagmire... Two words for Wesley Clark's interview with NewsHour: not impressed. Here's Clark's proposal for dealing with the Iraq occupation:

I put the international authority in. I reduce the influence of the U.S. occupying authority. I put the Iraqi governing council more in charge. I work for the constitution of the Iraqis in the long term. I keep the U.S. in charge of the security situation. I build up the Iraqi security forces. And I would... I do it all the same way we did it, let's say, in the Balkans. We put out a matrix. You said here's your political. Here's your economic. Here's your military. Here's what you're going to do this month, that month, so forth. Here's where you want to be. Here's your objectives. Here's how much it's going to cost. Show it to the American people.
Okay, so I'd be inclined to believe that Clark could probably oversee the operation more competently than Bush. But his "solution" doesn't really solve anything. There's no assurance that turning over the occupation to the UN would encourage foreign countries to pony up more aid and soldiers. Heck, there's no assurance that we even could turn authority over to the UN. Moreover, we've seen nothing to indicate that the Iraqi governing council is ready to take over. If anything, we'd be gearing up for Hamid Karzai part two. And the violence isn't going to end so long as foreign soldiers are in Iraq-- does Clark really think that adding a few German/French troops here and there will stop the terrorist attacks? What is the reasoning behind that?

The ugly part is that Clark and Bush are probably the only two presidential candidates who can seriously and credibly handle this situation... and neither of them have a half-decent strategy. It's time to realize that no one knows how to handle this situation. The Dem candidates continue to delude themselves into thinking that their UN trump card will magically fix everything. Only Donald Rumsfeld seems to have any appreciation for the real difficulties inherent in the occupation, and as Kevin Drum points out, the Pentagon may very well be working on a "Cut and Run" style strategy at this point. Which is just as foolish as anything Dennis Kucinich has proposed.



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