From the Dreyfuss Report:
With Iraqi sovereignty only 10 weeks away, and nary a plan in sight, it's now clear that the kind of sovereignty Iraq will enjoy will approximate that of the U.S. Virgin Islands, i.e., nil.Yesterday Paul Wolfowitz, the neocon Pentagon deputy secretary and his mini-me, Marc Grossman from the State Department, made clear that the transitional Iraqi government will be virtually powerless. It will have no ability to make laws and won't be able to interfere with U.S. military actions in Iraq. U.S. commanders will control all Iraqi army, police and security officials. The biggest change is that Czar Paul Bremer will be replaced by Czar John Negroponte, whose title will be "ambassador."
This reminds me of those kid's pages in the newspaper where one of the games was to look at two pictures and try to find all the differences between them. The pictures were always fundamentally the same, so you had to find all the little details that were different, like the plate of spaghetti that turned to a plate of french fries, or the girl wearing a skirt in one picture but pants in the other. Looks to me like nothing of any consequence is going to change in Iraq as of June 30, except for some ceremony that I'm sure will make lovely television. The only difference will be that the guy in charge is bald.
Posted by Jason at April 23, 2004 12:03 PM