From: Ad 

How ironic were it come to pass....

All the neo-con wittering about how containing Iraq (under Saddam) wasn't
enough & now.....

"In a city that is increasingly tuned to bad news from Iraq, this
report from the Brookings Institution, one of Washington's leading foreign
policy think-tanks, makes sombre reading.

"With each passing day," it says, "Iraq sinks deeper into
the abyss of civil war."

It argues that the Bush Administration's policy has to change "to
reflect the painful reality that the US effort to bring peace and stability
to Iraq has failed."

Unlike last year's report from the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group, whose goal
appears in large part to have been consensus at home, this Brookings study
is a tightly-argued case for urgent practical steps to deal with a looming
catastrophe.

Its title - "Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover From An Iraqi
Civil War" - says it all.

Things in Iraq are bad now, but they could indeed still get much worse. "

"He referred back to remarks attributed to a British officer - Field
Marshall Montgomery - when Britain was struggling with the Malaya
insurgency in the 1950s.

"First we need a man and then we need a plan," he said, and this
according to Prof Cohen is very much the approach being taken now in Iraq.

The new US commander there, he told me, Gen David Petraeus "is quite
unusual among all American generals".

"He has been thinking hard about this. He has a terrific background on
the ground and he has a fabulous network of contacts. He's been told he can
have anyone he wants to work with him. That's really the most important
thing that's been happening." "

Indeed...Go Petraeus. Fingers crossed 4 u mate.

BTW I do find: "Gen David Petraeus "is quite unusual among all
American generals"" deeply humorous. Gosh he's not
"Boooooyah we're waaaaaarrriorrrrssss wot kil our enemies dead
like...."

But enough of my dislike of the booyah shaved head mentality & no w
onto the meat..


"Containment policy

This, then, is where the Brookings study kicks in.

It argues that the key goal for the Bush administration now should be to
prevent the crisis in Iraq from spilling over into neighbouring states.

This spill-over could take various forms - floods of refugees, outright
military intervention, damaging economic effects, terrorism or even new
insurgencies in other countries.

What is needed, according to Kenneth Pollack is a new policy of containment
- to insulate Iraq's neighbours from the corrosive effects of a full-scale
civil war. "

Sounds a lot like bird flu.....maybe Iraq should be handed over to the WHO.


"Stepped up financial assistance to Iraq's neighbours would go
hand-in-hand with the pull-back of US troops from Iraqi population centres
to the country's borders."


ROFLMAO......2003-2007 & finally the US is waking up to "border
& bases" Geezus effing Christ no wonder the stocks of white fish
are down as significant being slapped with fsh noises must be being heard
round Washington.

BTW does "Stepped up financial assistance to Iraq's neighbours"
include Iran & Syria? Saudi ain't exactly short of dollars at the mo
so....Turkey & Jordan?

"Here they could prevent foreign intervention from both regular or
irregular forces and set up safe-havens where refugees could be protected
and cared for."


Riiight..... again does this include the Eastern & Western neighbors?

Adam

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