"Bush Confesses Defeat in Iraq"

Just need to remind myself periodically how radically divergent perceptions can be.

The thead subject line was the headline of Egypt's main opposition newspaper yesterday.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=34742

CAIRO, Egypt: Many Arabs on Thursday interpreted an American advisory panel’s bleak assessment of US President George W Bush’s Iraq policies as proof of Washington’s failure in the Middle East.

But others worried about the consequences if the US follows the Iraq Study Group’s (ISG) suggestions, warning that the report could fuel insurgents and others vying for influence to fill Iraq’s security vacuum.

“This report is a recognition of the limitation of American power,” said Abdel Moneim Said, head of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic studies in Cairo. “In the short term, America will highly suffer the loss of its reputation and credibility in the region.”

The bipartisan study, written under the leadership of former US Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former US Rep. Lee Hamilton, painted a dire picture of the situation in Iraq more than three years after the war started.

The report suggested the United States should find ways to pullback most of its combat forces by early 2008 and focus US troops on training and supporting Iraqi units. The US also should begin a” diplomatic offensive” by the end of the month and engage adversaries Iran and Syria in an effort to quell sectarian violence and shore up the fragile Iraqi government, the report said.

Mustafa Bakri, an outspoken critic of the US and editor of the Egyptian tabloid Al-Osboa, told a state-run television show that the report indicated “the end of America.”

Bakri, who supports Syrian President Bashar Assad and the former regime of Saddam Hussein, urged Arab countries to “capture the moment as America now is in its weakest period.”

The Iraq Study Group’s report was the top headline in many Arab newspapers on Thursday, including the Egyptian opposition daily Al-Wafd, which declared: “Bush confesses defeat in Iraq.” The paper’s editor-in-chief Anwar el-Hawari predicted that at the very least, the Middle East would not hear from Bush for the coming 24 months.

“Practically, this means that this is the real end of Bush rule, his policies and the neo-conservative groups. This also means that the coming two years left in his term will be a period of a political vacuum,” he wrote.

Joseph Samaha, editor-in-chief of Lebanese opposition daily Al-Akhbar, said even before the study group’s report found shortcomings in the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, Arabs had already concluded that Iraq had turned into a “holocaust for American claims.”

“Al-Qaeda must smell victory, but its a negative victory that comes from the defeat of America in Iraq,” Said of the Al-Ahram centre said.

Scary.

[Judge Dredd]

I liked your old headline better.

Originally Posted by Judge Dredd

I liked your old headline better.

I'm trying to cut down on the snarkiness.

The former sublime seemed condescending. As if the reader wasn't already in touch with reality.

[Judge Dredd]

Originally Posted by Uma Karuna

I'm trying to cut down on the snarkiness.

The former sublime seemed condescending. As if the reading wasn't already in touch with reality.

it was. And the problem was I couldn't come up with an equally snarky retort.

ok, so back to the article: I always expected them to claim american weakness once we decided to withdraw. It appears I am wrong - they didn't wait for the withdraw, just the mere recommendation of a withdraw.

Originally Posted by Judge Dredd

it was. And the problem was I couldn't come up with an equally snarky retort.

ok, so back to the article: I always expected them to claim american weakness once we decided to withdraw. It appears I am wrong - they didn't wait for the withdraw, just the mere recommendation of a withdraw.

Kinda seems to take all the wind out of trying for a face-saving exit. Why bother? We've already lost, as far as the people in the region are concerned. And they're not stupid....they know that we could blast them into glass if we weren't concerned about maintaining influence there. But they also know that we're apparently incapable of stabilizing a country that doesn't necessarily want to be stable.

[Listeria]

Originally Posted by Uma Karuna

I'm trying to cut down on the snarkiness.

The former sublime seemed condescending. As if the reading wasn't already in touch with reality.

It is hard not to be condescending when one is as sublime as you or I.

Originally Posted by Listeria

It is hard not to be condescending when one is as sublime as you or I.

Wow...that was a fortunate typo! Totally unintentional!

[Listeria]

[Judge Dredd]

Originally Posted by Uma Karuna

Kinda seems to take all the wind out of trying for a face-saving exit. Why bother? We've already lost, as far as the people in the region are concerned. And they're not stupid....they know that we could blast them into glass if we weren't concerned about maintaining influence there. But they also know that we're apparently incapable of stabilizing a country that doesn't necessarily want to be stable.

This is where it splinters off to a "point of view" debate.

'cause I never saw it as a saving face exit, so much as exiting when things seems stable - and it seems like we've reached the point where we are ready to give up on that.

[The Drunken Actuary]

Can't we just nuke the entire middle east? COuld we still get the oil if we did that?