Iraq is not ready for voting

According to the UN investigating team.

The UN has determined that Iraq is not going to be able to have an election process up and running by summer. Surprise. Huh?

But the Bushit administration wants an Iraqi government set up and going so His Slowliness the Dope will have one positive point on which to run his reSelection bid. Another surprise. Huh?

"When we went into Iraq, our plan was to have a government, build a structure and write a constitution that would be a source of longterm stability," said an administration official. "Now that's out the window."

"I can make all kinds of arguments about why we need to establish democracy in Iraq on an urgent basis," said another administration official. "But when you hear from on high that this is what we must do, and there can be no questioning of it, it sounds like politics."  article


It sounds just like that. Surprise. Huh?

This week, the administration is in the odd position of insisting on Iraqi self-rule by June 30, while awaiting a recommendation from the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, on how the interim government should be chosen and the form it should take.

I understand the Washington favorite at this point is an extension of the ridiculous Governing Council which is there now, but they can't figure out how to have the people they want selected without it looking like it's just an extension of the one that's there.

Administration officials say that [UN official Lakhdar] Brahimi was told that one option he must not accept is postponement of the June 30 date for the transfer of power.

"It is holy writ," said an administration official.

I wonder what Sistani's next move will be.

It makes no sense, many experts say, to set a fixed date to hand over sovereignty before having any idea of what sort of government will be given power on that date.

Really?

"This is entirely a schedule dictated by Karl Rove," said an Arab diplomat who maintains close contacts with the administration, referring to the White House's political director. "Anyone who thinks otherwise is naïve."

Well, that won't be any YWA readers.

Last year, the administration insisted that there should be no rush to transfer sovereignty to Iraq, citing the need to get a constitution written first. That plan changed on Nov. 15, when L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator in Baghdad, set the June 30 date.

Administration officials bridle at the suggestion that politics have played a role in Mr. Bremer's announcement.

Dips.

It wouldn't necessarily have to be a political move. It could simply be that they need to set a date and at least say it's firm in order to keep the process moving. But the date that has been chosen to do that is awfully suspect.

One more log on the fire, and the White House will surely come to a roiling boil.

Anybody got one?

....do what you want....you will anyway.