Blogs > Disaster or Triumph: You Decide

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?



comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:


Stephen Tootle - 8/29/2005

It is too early to tell if it was a disaster. Bush did not claim it was a triumph. Perhaps it was a "next step in their transition from dictatorship to democracy."