Aug 29, 2005
Disaster or Triumph: You Decide
Sunday (Guardian):
In a conversation on Wednesday night, Bush spoke at length to Hakim from Nampa, Idaho, where he had just delivered a fierce defence of the Iraq war. The call was prompted by news that Shia leaders were poised to end negotiations and put the document to a referendum, in the face of Sunni opposition. Bush held that such a move would be a disaster, isolating even further the Sunni communities who are at the heart of the anti-American insurgency.
Monday (NYT):
A Sunni member of the constitutional committee, Mahmoud al-Mashadani, said, "We have reached a point where this constitution contains the seeds of the division of Iraq."
In the face of those developments, President Bush, at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., praised the constitution as a milestone in Iraqi history, congratulating Iraqi leaders for "completing the next step in their transition from dictatorship to democracy."
In other words ... What was a disasterous prospect on Wednesaday became a triumph on Sunday when the president failed to persuade the Shiites to accomodate the Sunnis. If this isn't spin, what is?