According to the Washington Post , the Bush Administration has set a deadline of the Jul 1, 2004 for turning over sovereignty to the provisional government of Iraq, thus eliminating the attainment of many previous U.S. priorities, such as privatizing Iraq's socialized industries and making sure that a constitution was written before turning governmental authority over to the provisional Iraqi government. According to one unnamed senior U.S. official involved in Iraq's reconstruction, " Right now, everyone's attention is focused [on] doing what we need to do to hand over sovereignty by next summer." Sounds like Bush is eager to get re-elected and has laid down a mandate to turn over governing authority to Iraqis.
But with the presence of U.S. troops to continue beyond that date, one should wonder whether that will make any difference in the number and frequency of attacks on U.S. troops and on other foreign nationals involved in Iraq's reconstruction. Will Bush pull U.S. troops out of Iraq after next fall's presidential election, thus admitting defeat as Nixon did in Vietnam, or will his neocon advisers convince him to keep the U.S. involved in that quagmire?
