Monday, March 13, 2006

But we do have a plan. It's just not working.

Timed to coincide with Bush's Last Throes pep rally, Ask the White House today featured Ambassador James Jeffrey, senior advisor to Secretary of State Rice on Iraq and the State Department’s coordinator for Iraq policy.

First up was Ben, from Philadelphia, who wanted to know:
Why has the administration consistently failed to develop a cohesive plan to stabilize Iraq, restore basic services and rebuild a secure infrastructure?

Ambassador James Jeffrey
Ben, the Administration does have a comprehensive plan, it's just not working.

[Okay, I took some editorial liberties there. The good ambassador provides a link to The Plan, so Ben can read the damn thing himself.]
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Dean, from Ohio was curious:
With all of the uncertainty and differences of opinion on if we should be there, why not allow the people of Iraq to vote on if we should leave?

Ambassador James Jeffrey
Dean, first of all, we do not 'allow' or 'not allow' the Iraqi people to do anything.

And secondly, even we didn't not "not allow" the Iraqis to vote on this, we've run out of purple finger ink.
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Noble, from Texas writes:
It appears that each day civil war is becoming more and more likely in Iraq. What shift in policy, if any, can the American people expect out of the administration in response to this possibility?

Ambassador James Jeffrey
While civil war is a possibility, we do not believe that it is likely at this point, and we believe that this likelihood has further decreased in the past several weeks. We are cognizant of the risks to Iraq’s future in increased sectarian violence.

And if things totally crap out, we plan to jam the humvees into reverse.
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Susan, from San Jose, CA writes:
Tell me when do you expect the economy of Iraq to turn around enough for the currency to be valued higher. Price at presanction trading was much higher ($3.20 per dinar).

Ambassador James Jeffrey
Thank you, Susan. Both the U.S. Government and the International Monetary Fund are confident that the Iraqi government will continue to grow in 2006, the political and military situation permitting.

While the Iraqi dinar has fallen dramatically against the dollar in the 1990s, it has stabilized at approximately 1475 dinar to the dollar, a rate we have seen for the past several years.

By the way, you didn't get suckered into putting any money into that BetOnIraq scheme, did you?

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