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A Good Question
Posted 2:53 p.m., April 11, 2004
"That's a good question" is not a good answer.
On Today's "Meet the Press," Tim Russert asked the presidential envoy in Iraq, Paul Bremer, to whom will the U.S. turn over sovereignty on June 30?
"That," Bremer said, "is a good question. And itâ??s an important part of the crisis weâ??re having here now."
The U.S., he said, is in the process of working with a special representative of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan â??to figure out the best way to get a representative government in place before the end of June so it has a little practice.â??
What a terrible response. What a frustrating and mystifying response. It is April 11. How is it conceivable that we are still trying to figure this out? How is it excusable that these questions werenâ??t worked out before we invaded this country?
You cannot blame Paul Bremer for this. He is doing his job as best he can, by all appearances. But now it seems that, just as it neglected to brief Senate Foreign Relations chairman Richard Lugar and ranking committee Democrat Joe Biden--and everyone else--the Bush administration is holding its plans close to the vest. Or worse, as Biden openly alleges, it simply has no plan.
Whither Thou, Gee-Dub?
Meanwhile, the president has gone MIA. He is almost nowhere to be seen, hasnâ??t been in view during a critical 10-day period when Iraq blew up, apparent administration laxity in the run-up to 9/11 has been revealed by Condi Riceâ??s testimony and the release of the PDB document, and his poll numbers have plunged.
Last week, many of the current 129,000 U.S. troops in Iraq were informed that their Iraq hitches are being extended. And in a related and ominous sign, itâ??s now reported that in Iraq, one of four new Iraqi Army battalions refused to fight this week against insurgents in Fallujah, complaining they didnâ??t sign up to battle their own countrymen.
Whether itâ??s fair or not, it appears that not only has this president something to hide, as 60 percent of respondents of one poll this week said they believed, but that he is afraid to show his face--at least not without an extended period of coaching by his inner circle. Why? Out of fear that he wonâ??t be able to contain his inner bungler? Why has there not at least been a presidential press conference?
Bremer, for his part, insists that we havenâ??t lost control of Iraq. He told Russert today that, â??Weâ??ve got several thousand people who are anti-democratic, who donâ??t believe in the kind of Iraq that weâ??re trying to build--and which the majority of Iraqis want. And weâ??re going to have to deal with them. Weâ??ll deal with them politically and militarily.â??
Bremer, however did come close to conceding a point made this weekend by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said the situation in Iraq now is the most serious the U.S.-led coalition has faced. â??The lid of the pressure cooker has come off,â?? Straw told the BBC Saturday.
â??I have a different image I use,â?? Bremer said. â??Itâ??s not all that different. I think itâ??s fair to say that over 35 years a lot of poison was built up in the Iraqi body politic and whatâ??s coming out now is that poison.â??
On this Easter afternoon, a day of peace and rebirth, let us all hope that this is a poison that can be contained, that an antidote can be found, before it spreads throughout the Middle East because of the Bush administration's errant and arrogant choice to enter into a war of choice without a plan for managing the subsequent peace.
McCain Bows Out
It looks like he means it. Arizona Sen. John McCain will absolutely not run for Vice President on the John Kerry ticket, he said today on "Meet the Press." He told Tim Russert today that he is campaigning as Arizona co-chair of the Bush reelection campaign and will continue to campaign for the president. What's more, he says, "I will not be vice president of the United States under any circumstances."
It wouldn't matter, McCain said, even if he were allowed to remain a Republican, splitting the presidency and vice presidency between the two parties.
"I believe that President Bush deserves reelection," McCain said, brushing off a long laundry list of issues where he and Bush part ways--tax cuts, energy policy, gay marriage, Medicare reform, global warming. "I agree with him on Iraq, on national security policy, on a broad variety of domestic issues that I think are important to the future of the country." Interestingly, he listed no specific domestic policy commonalities.
More is the pity. As I wrote in a previous column, a Kerry/McCain ticket would have sent a powerful message through the federal bureaucracy and to the American electorate that it is time to set aside bitter partisan squabbling, get serious as a nation, and set about finding solutions to a host of American policy problems, some of which literally threaten the continuing viability of the nation.
Copyright 2004, by Kevin Featherly
