I almost fell over when I read this via Andrew Sullivan (yes I'm still reading him, so sue me). His name is Thomas Barnett, and he goes on and on about democracy in Iraq, but then says this:
So rather than dicking around with the question of which Shiite faction gets to claim the PM spot, like the U.S. and the UK recently tried to do, I would rather follow Kerry’s advice of creating external pressure via deadlines, as in, we demonstrate that our patience is not infinite and that we’re smart enough to keep this fight as focused on its essential Sunni-Shiite roots as possible and not let it become a wider front (and thus another propaganda victory for al Qaeda) in years ahead.
By forcing the Sunni-Shiite struggle to the forefront, we force al Qaeda to reveal more openly its anti-Shiite hatreds and that only makes clear to both our public and the region that Shiites tend to be nationalists who see a world of recognizable borders while the radical Sunni Salafis do not.
So distinctions to be made: 1) don’t give up on democracy in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East, because it’s quite possible the region will need to go the Gorby route on politics before the Deng possibilities for economic connectivity emerge; but 2) also don’t hold U.S. ground combat troops (note the modifiers there) hostage to that long-term process.
snip
I also like the Kerry op-ed simply because he raises the specter of a Dayton-like accords on Iraq, one that I would logically argue should include the Iranians.
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/003140.html In Andrew Sullivan's post, he quotes Barnett and then says this:
Barnett, however, is open-minded about the possibilities of our current moment, and even thinks John Kerry's ideas are worth considering. I still think that a Kerry administration would have been able to move this endeavor forward more effectively than the incompetents who helped screw it up. But we are where we are.
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/04/patience_please.htmlLike a starving dog, I am thrilled to receive scraps like these from conservatives who are willing to admit that * is a big screw-up, but are willing to go a step further and say, "yeah, Kerry would have been better on Iraq". We're living here in our Democratic land, where we have to deal with the foolish far lefty freepers, who really aren't that smart I'm sorry to say. It never occurred to me that there would be anything but dismay for Kerry's bold plan from the Right, but the honest conservatives do have moments of intellectual honesty and this is one of them, and I'm willing to bask in it, before they go back to their usual Dem bashing.
This is good news, guys. This is a SERIOUS plan, and SERIOUS people are looking at it.
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