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Originally posted by sgtclub
(b) given in for no agreement on debt relief, in which case we look like we are capitulating, but we spin it as an opportunity to kiss and make up and the French feel like BSDs...
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Wow, that's a "not bad" result to you? That sure looks like a hat eating party for Rabbi Hank and the freedom fries crowd to me (HC, love the new look by the way).
Not saying you are one of those, just saying that I would think there are several admin officials who would prefer a full afternoon of rubbing tanning oil on a thong-clad Hillary Clinton to doing anything that could remotely be seen as capitulating to the French.
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(c) we don't given in and we are stuck right where we are today, no worse off.
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On the one hand you could say we'd be no worse off because the debt amount would still be the same as it is now. But on the other hand if by publicizing this contracting policy at the outset of Baker's mission we eliminated some amount of desire on the part of Iraq's creditors to cooperate with us, then I would say we were worse off.
Of course I could never prove that, and you would be well-positioned to come back at me with the same "well they never would have helped us anyway" response that us pinkos get whenever we suggest that there could have been some better diplomatic work before the war. But, as you say, let's wait and see.
I find Kristol and Kagan's suggestion interesting:
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A more clever American administration would have thrown a contract or two to a couple of those opponents, to a German firm, for instance, as a way of wooing at least the business sectors in
a country where many businessmen do want to strengthen ties with the United States.
A truly wise American administration would have opened the bidding to all comers, regardless of their opposition to the war -- as a way of buying those countries into the Iraq effort, building a little goodwill for the future, and demonstrating to the world a little magnanimity.
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...3/481yjxxw.asp
Bilmore has argued eloquently to the contrary of this analysis, so I don't propose to say that this was the clear path to travel. However, I think it's quite a stretch to say that this is a no-lose proposition.
