The Hindu : Bush Govt. under fire over exit strategy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2003

International

International

Bush Govt. under fire over exit strategy

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington Nov. 17. Even as the Bush administration is going into overdrive, insisting that there is no question of "cutting and running" from Iraq, Democrats and critics are questioning the wisdom of this so-called accelerated withdrawal strategy.

Barely a day after the administration admitted that it was searching for a new exit strategy from Iraq, Democrats went on the offensive, stating that the change of tune had more to do with the demands of the presidential election than a genuine change of heart. The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, took the administration to task for placing "too much emphasis on exit and not enough emphasis on success". Senior Democrats on Sunday talk shows came down on the new plan that would see Iraqi sovereignty in the hands of a new government by the end of June 2004. "The President needs first and foremost a plan for success, not an exit strategy", Mr. Daschle argued.

And what has made the concern levels more in non-administration circles is the feeling that somehow the U.S. is seeking to have leverage even in the new scheme of things. And some of this has to do with statements that troop deployments would continue for much longer.

"As long as we are the ones that are selecting the local leaders, setting up the local elections, establishing the process and the procedures, then our servicemen and women are going to be in the bulls eye", remarked the senior Democrat, Senator Edward Kennedy. "We would hope that they are doing it for the right reasons and not because it's tied into a presidential election", he said.

Not all of the Democrats running for the party nomination for November 2004 have been on the national media giving their views on the recent turnaround of the Republican administration.

But the retired General Wesley Clarke did: "It's a mess. There is no reason to wait until June to give Iraqis back their country. We should be transferring that authority tomorrow", he said.

But top administration officials, starting with the President, George W. Bush, have been seeking to allay fears that the U.S. Government — keeping in mind its own domestic political realities — is seeking to cut losses and run.

And from the end of last week, the consistent theme of officials has been that the U.S. will stay in Iraq "until the job is done" — a contention repeated by the top American civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Sunday.

One of things that senior officials such as Mr. Bremer are trying to do is to counter the argument that Washington is running away from Iraq and that the decision to hand over power to the Iraqis prior to the drafting of a constitution is any major shift in policy.

Mr. Bremer, for instance, has tried to make the point that the new interim arrangement idea had to do with the Iraqi Governing Council's inability to come up with a permanent constitution in less than two years. "There's no major shift here", he maintained on CNN.

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