"Excerpts: White House Iraq Strategy"

Six assumptions the Bush administration has made about improving security in Iraq.

- Insurgents can win only if the U.S. surrenders.

- There is enough political will in the U.S. to keep troops in Iraq to fight terrorists while training Iraqi forces until "the mission is done" - increasing or decreasing troop levels only as conditions warrant.

- Making progress on the political front will more clearly identify those who are willing to support a new Iraqi government from terrorists or insurgents "who must be either killed or captured, detained and prosecuted."

- Training and equipping Iraqi security forces will create an army and police force that can maintain order in Iraq.

- Any meddling by outsiders can be contained or neutralized.

- Iraqis ultimately will have to eliminate threats to their own security.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20051130/D8E6PGM01.html

From the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, I see nothing more than repeating the propaganda, time and time again.
Repeat the bull and then repeat it again...

From the Stategy for Victory in Iraq document:
THE CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE
�� If we and our Iraqi partners fail in Iraq, Iraq will become:
• A safe haven for terrorists as Afghanistan once was, only this time in some of the world’s
most strategic territory, with vast natural resources to exploit and to use to fund future attacks.
• A country where oppression – and the brutal imposition of inhumane practices, such as those
of the Taliban in Afghanistan – is pervasive.
• A failed state and source of instability for the entire Middle East, with all the attendant risks
and incalculable costs for American security and prosperity.
�� Furthermore, if we and our Iraqi partners fail in Iraq, the terrorists will have:
• Won a decisive victory over the United States, vindicating their tactics of beheadings, suicide
bombings, and ruthless intimidation of civilians, inviting more deadly attacks against
Americans and other free people across the globe.
• Placed the American people in greater danger by destabilizing a vital region, weakening our
friends, and clearing the way for terrorist attacks here at home. The terrorists will be
emboldened in their belief that America cannot stand and fight, but will cut and run in the
face of adversity.
5
• Called into question American credibility and commitment in the region and the world. Our
friends and foes alike would doubt our staying power, and this would damage our efforts to
counter other security threats and to advance other economic and political interests worldwide.
�� Since 1998, Al Qaida has repeatedly cited Vietnam, Beirut, and Somalia, as examples to
encourage more attacks against America and our interests overseas.
• Weakened the growing democratic impulses in the region. Middle East reformers would
never again fully trust American assurances of support for democracy and pluralism in the
region – a historic opportunity, central to America’s long-term security, forever lost.
If we retreat from Iraq, the terrorists will pursue us and our allies, expanding
the fight to the rest of the region and to our own shores.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/images/11/30/iraq.strategy.pdf

I don't know how many times in the past I have heard the same B.S. from a repuke.
They actually think somone other than their loyalist will believe this crap?

If Bushit & Co could carpet bomb the entire region....they would!We kinda like Jordan & Egypt..BUT Afganistan, Iran, and Arabia (Iraq)could go tomorrow and we could have all the oil!

I read those assumptions, too, and I was struck by the hard-headed "political" nature of them. They just seemed glib, and made off-hand assumptions.

I'll just take 1 talking point, even though they could ALL be torn up like a $2 shirt.

- Iraqis ultimately will have to eliminate threats to their own security.

Blow apart Illusion #5: The Iraqi insurgents are IRAQIS. They are fighting for their own country. they want the occupiers out, today if possible. They want to be in charge of their own domestic policy.

Also, Iraqis are tribal. They work with alliances, they have a deep loyalty to each other. They can't be herded together with a gun stuck in their hands and shoot each other. They will ultimately turn on their master.

I almost feel sorry for the people who sat down and wrote this crap. They are so lacking in insight, it's pathetic.