Prometheus 6

But before I go, I'd like to drop some professional analysis of the current state of affairs in Iraq. None other than (let me look this up) Zbigniew Brzezinski, who I used to think had the coolest name in government, today on PBS's The NewsHour:

JIM LEHRER: Now, to two analysts who have been with us since the Iraq war began: Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Carter, now a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Walter Russell Mead, a columnist and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Brzezinski, how would you characterize the significance of what happened today?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think it's a good step in the right direction. But I would avoid using Orwellian language in describing it. This is not a transfer of power, a handover to a sovereign government. We are transferring limited authority to a satellite government, a satellite government that is still to establish its legitimacy and the longer we stay, the more difficult it will be before it to gain legitimacy. That is my basic view

This too:

JIM LEHRER: Do you agree with that, Dr. Brzezinski, that with all your reservations that at least something has been ceded to the Iraqis now? They are in charge of a lot more than they were as of this morning.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Yes, let's not pump it up and let's not distort it. We have had too much Orwellian language in our discussion of Iraq altogether. The Orwellian language was invented by communists but it's being adapted in our political discourse by the neocons. We talk about liberation when it's an occupation. We talk about peace when it's war. We talk about sovereignty when it's limited authority.

Let's be realistic in our assessments and then I think we'll be in a better position to conduct a serious national debate over what needs to be done and what is being done. I think that this is a step in the right direction but the pitfalls are enormous. Unless we recognize that we have to change course rather significantly, I am afraid we may dig ourselves in and be stuck in the Middle East the way the Israelis have been stuck in the West Bank. They have been there for 37 years. I don't want American occupation forces to be stuck in the Middle East for years.

And for balance, The Other Guy:

JIM LEHRER: Dr. Mead, how would you summarize this handover or whatever word you would like to use to describe it?

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Well, I agree with dr. Brzezinski that we don't want to be Orwellian about this but I think maybe satellite, which was used to describe the puppet governments of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe may be a little too extreme. This is a transition is the way I describe it. What we have here is an infant regime that we hope will grow. The plan is really for a transition. That is to say this is an interim government. The elections should be held by no later than Jan. 31, and the task is to try to improve stability and security while coming closer to the freest elections in the history of the Arab world, we hope.