waider

For all my usual harping, I do think that the Franco-Prussian axis is being a little unreasonable in their rejection of the US proposals concerning Iraq - one of their stated objections is that the US plan doesn't hand back power to the Iraqis quickly enough. I don't think any plan is going to do that, because the country is unstable and any removal of stablising influences - however biased - will result in a fairly instant quasi-civil war between, say, the Kurds, the Shi'ites, the Sunnis, strays from Syria, Iran, and Jordan, Israelis looking to sneak a bit more land for their little state, etc. etc. etc. And inevitable though it may be, I don't think any country wants to be seen as the country that did a Balkans routine on Iraq - pulled out and left the place disintegrate into its own disaster area.