Kristol

Ou como preparar uma eventual derrota de Bush: uma nova aliança com os Democratas:

Bush's Iraq Policy Ignores Mistakes of the Past, Historians Say

"In 1920, the British put down the joint Sunni-Shiite uprising with an air-bombing campaign that cost about 6,500 lives on both sides. Ferguson of New York University said the U.S.-led coalition must also act decisively, relying on high-tech weaponry to avoid the brutality of the British response. (...)

Some early supporters of the Bush administration's Iraq policy have become more vocal in their criticism of decisions made over the past year. Among them is Kristol, who signed an open letter in early 2002 calling for Hussein's ouster.

In the 1990s, Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, which the Weekly Standard's Web site says shaped the strategy that helped the Republican party gain control of Congress in 1994. He was chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during the Bush administration and to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Ronald Reagan.

``A lot of us thought at some level that they know what they are doing,'' Kristol said, referring to the administration. ``But many parts of the government appear feckless, not at the macro level, but at the operational level.''

Norton said the political situation in Iraq won't become easier after the scheduled transfer of sovereignty by the U.S. to the Iraqis on June 30.

``It is clear that anyone who takes over will be tainted by a connection to the U.S., and the only way they will survive is to distance themselves from the U.S., which will prompt the U.S. to try to undermine them,'' Norton said.

``There is not a single case in the Middle East where the political elite put in place by the colonial power survived for long,'' he said. ``In this case, it might take a decade or two, given backing from the U.S., but the long-term prospects do not augur well.''