Finally.. the inevidable compromise has been reached.. and the final American effort to stabalise the new Iraqi government has begun.. by throwing thousands more troops at the insurgents..
Their numbers are finite.. their lines of supply, while numerous.. will be shut down to a tremendous degree.. their allies will re-think any detection of association..
And if the Americans manage to demonstrate to the man on the Iraqi street that it's safer to go to the market.. to take a bus.. standing in line to enlist in th Iraqi Police Force.. because they are there and stopping these killers before they can act.. then it will give the separate factions within the Iraqui government.. the Shi'ite majority reaching agreement with the Sunni influence and experience.. and could lead to an efective basis from which to form a workable infrastructure..
30 thousand more American soldiers and their accompanying machinery by mid-June..
Elections beginning to loom..
And while George can't run again.. it's imperative that he instill in the American public the conviction that what he has started, deserves to be completed. That his 'War On Terror' should not be sidelined or back-burnered..
That a Republican will be needed to continue to steer this massive machine he has set in motion..
But.. 'is there enough time' is a serious consideration when considering swinging national opinion..
Gordon has slightly less time to effect the same here.. although he has been given an 'out' by Tony, with talk of British withdrawals from Iraq and re-deployment in Afghanistan..
However.. that was tempered with the caveat, that the 'situation be stable and in the hands of the Iraqi Forces..'
One again is somehow drawn to extrapolating the future of France in this conflict.. Nikolas Sarkozy might well extend a hand to both Britain and the United States that France would be willing to extend 'help'.. be it either diplomatic or in Lobbying for the inevidable request that all forces in Iraq, be under the control of the UN..
That, is the logical 'last step' before the withdrawal of all Western troops from that country..
But George wants the appearance that the Americans will hand over a 'job well done'.. and an infrastructure in place.. Tony, of course, wants that as well.. It will define what's later recorded in history texts, with the luxury of future retrospection and analysis..
An era has come to an end here in Britain, with the disappearance of Tony..
The same will happen in a couple of years in the US..
It is more than interesting to keep an eye on what their successors make of this..
'This'.. in the broadest sense..