Lots of stuff out there, but this is from the NY Times (emphasis added):
The announcement of a firm date to create an interim Iraqi government and end the formal American occupation -- though not the American military presence -- promises the Iraqis the sovereignty they have clamored for, and offers President Bush the political symbol he needed: the beginnings of an exit strategy that he can explain to American voters.
This should be an interesting few months coming up. While I think it's great that things may get turned over to the Iraqis, if American troop levels don't go down I can't imagine that anyone is really going to be happy. My guess is that whatever the situation is, as long as there's a significant American military presence in Iraq, folks are going to view it as an occupation. It won't matter whether we're there at the "invitation" of the Iraqi government or not. What's more, people in the U.S. will be unhappy because they'll be told on the one hand that things are being turned over to the Iraqis, and then on the other that Johnny still needs to stay. That's going to cause some cognitive dissonance, to say the least.
There are some who say that this all smells of an administration trying to sweep something under the rug so that Dubya can stay in the White House. They may be right, but I find it hard to imagine this working out that way. My personal hunch is that the situation in Iraq will just get uglier.
Posted by Jason at November 16, 2003 03:44 PM