No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

Bush's Continued Failure as President

The Bush administration appears ready to announce a change in how Phase II
of the War in Iraq will be fought. Lt. General Sanchez carefully used the
term "War" in his recent address because things there are getting worse, not
better.

New York Times


There is also concern that the Iraqi Councli will not meet the December 15th
deadline for preparing a new Constitution. While the Bush admininstration
want to blame this potential delay on the Iraqis, the Iraqi foreign minister
told this to the Financial Times:

The chief concern has been that the IGC will fail to meet a December 15
deadline for setting a schedule for writing a new constitution and holding
elections. Mr Powell this week raised for the first time the possibility of
putting in place a "basic law" in Iraq "before we get to a full
constitution".

However, Iraq's foreign minister on Tuesday blamed "geriatric ambassadors"
from the West and "American infighting" for many of the problems and
security failures bedevilling the US-led occupation.

Hoshyar Zebari defended the IGC and insisted the December 15 deadline would
be met. "I think this debate about the ruling council - that it is not doing
its work, that it is not taking decisions - this is unfair," Mr Zebari told
the FT.

"American infighting among themselves between different departments over
policy . . . has created many, many of the difficulties that we are going
through."

Mr Zebari also criticised the quality of advice that Mr Bremer had received
on security issues, although he said co-operation had improved since the
early days after Baghdad fell in April.

Financial Times

The only operations in Iraq which have suceeded have been those which were
entirely the responsibility of the US military in which the civilian
"leadership" has interfered only minimally. Now that the Bush civilian
administration has screwed it up again, they are going to try to hand it off
to the military to fix their screwups. The problem of infighting between the
departments in the US federal government described by Zebari (above) is a
clear indication that George Bush is not able to do the required job as
President. This is simply more of the same warring that has gone on between
the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community (including the DIA and
CIA), and the State Department, and it has led to continued failures by the
Bush administration which they have tried to cover up with public relations
charm offensives and efforts to silence their critics.

Post-War Iraq countinues to prove George Bush's failure as President, and
the reshuffling that will occur very shortly with Bremer simply provides
more evidence of his utter failure as leader and President.


posted by Richard at 9:59 AM