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Comments, possibly informed.

Tim Wilson
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
timatollah@mackandtim.net
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What to do about Iraq? Josh Marshall's been referring to the piece on Iraq that he's been working on for a while now. The piece is finally out; it's here at Washington Monthly's web site.

The piece doesn't come through as strongly in favor of action as Marshall's entry on the Talking Points Memo page sounds like it will. Still, it seems to be a good analysis, particularly of the inside baseball regarding who thinks what about what to do regarding the current Iraqi regime. A little too much inside baseball and not enough about what the real consequences of any particular policy are, but useful nonetheless.

One gripe: There's what seems to me a gratuitous and pointless swipe at the current administration regarding the timing of an attack on Iraq. "There is talk of a military assault on Iraq as early as this winter, though a more likely target date is 12 to 18 months from now. (With victory scheduled in time for the '04 elections? Perish the thought!)" While I don't expect any politician to quit thinking about possible political ramifications of any decision, and while I don't think Bush II is pure as snow in such regards, any war with Iraq is of sufficient consequence in life, not just American, that I'd like to naively believe that the timing of any such attack would be decided overwhelmingly on military considerations relative to political ones.

Speaking of timing, The Bull Moose (no permalinks) weighs in today, yet again, with calls to attack Iraq in a piece griping about administration waffling on matters of import.
posted by Tim Wilson at 12:53 PM