Exit No, Iran Yes

San Francisco Senator Barbara Boxer took her gloves off in the Condi Rice confirmation hearing yesterday and between her and Sen. Joe Biden landed some strong rhetorical blows against the Bush administration's lack of an “exit strategy” in Iraq.

The only problem is, as Seymour M. Hersh writes this week's New Yorker, the Bush administration has no intention of exiting.

Remember Bush's pre-Iraq invasion euphemism, “Axis of Evil?” As Hersh documents, this is what we are at war with in Iraq today, and if you recall, the “Axis” is not limited to that country. It includes Iran and North Korea, and Iran being next door, is next in the sights of a Bush administration that has consolidated centralized White House control over the nation's military and intelligence communities to a degree not seen since World War II.

“We can withdraw from Iraq when we feel the Iraqis are equipped to take care of themselves,” Rice said yesterday, “But we're a long way from that point.”

In reality, there's no way that point can ever be reached, especially as U.S.-initiated hostilities are extended well into to Iran. Even the administration's best estimates indicate the Iraqis are far from able to account for their own internal security at this time. It claims there are 127,000 Iraqi officers now fully trained, but that number is half of what is needed.

However, Biden insisted the number was more like four thousand, based on his own intelligence, and charged that “the Pentagon really has no idea.”

Rice conceded that there has been an “uneven performance” by the Iraqi forces in training to date. “When put in the field, some fight, some don't,” she shrugged. “We have yet to figure out why that is."

Until the problem is solved, she admitted, “The drawing down of U.S. forces will not be possible.”

Being “trained” means being able to effectively replace an equivalent U.S. force, Biden insisted, suggesting that a much lower standard than that is being used by the Bush administration in its estimates now.

“Please tell us the truth about this,” he pleaded with Rice, adding, "Don't ask Rumsfeld. He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."

And while Boxer, Sen. Byrd and possibly and some other Democrats are planning to temporarily block the confirmation of Rice on the floor of the Senate today in an effort to slightly tarnish Bush's inauguration festivities, the confirmation is assured, and Rice will have escaped accountability for the grim reality behind her glib responses on matters of “exit strategies.”

As Hersh's article now suggests, the Bush administration's going into Iraq without an "exit strategy" was not an oversight or flaw in planning. In fact, it was an integral part of the original military plan.

That plan includes construction of permanent military installations and infrastructure in the region with an aim to hunker down for the long haul as the war is extended to the wider territory that encompasses Iran and other countries.

As Hersh writes, “Rumsfeld will become even more important during the second term. In interviews with past and present intelligence and military officials, I was told that the agenda had been determined before the Presidential election, and much of it would be Rumsfeld's responsibility. The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon's control. The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.”

Among other things, he says, these covert operations do not require oversight by the Senate and House intelligence committees, and the C.I.A. is completely out of the loop, demoted to the role of “facilitator” of initiatives emanating from the White House.

In keeping with the “New American Century” ideology informing the White House neocons' execution of this policy, a key component is also to keep the U.S.'s European and United Nations allies out of the loop and to effectively undermine their initiatives. In the case of Iran, efforts by the U.K., France, Germany and others to delay and deter the Iranian development of nuclear capabilities is getting no cooperation from the Bush administration, even though the Europeans concede their efforts are doomed without U.S. participation.

This is all too familiar. But for Americans concerned about an “exit strategy” for Iraq, don't hold your breath. Even more emboldened by his re-election, the President and his cronies' plans for our sons and daughters in uniform have nothing to do with bringing them home anytime soon.

Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com