You won’t hear it from George Bush, but Operation Iraqi Occupation, begins today. Just yesterday, Iraqis kissed coalition troops and toppled statues of Saddam Hussein, celebrating Baghdad’s fall. Today, Kurdish families threw roses to coalition troops rolling into Kirkuk. Although the U.S. hasn’t declared victory, Iraq’s Ambassador to the UN says “The game is over.” While the game may be over, now the real work, the work of bringing food, water, and medicine to a torn and lawless country, and of transforming a dictatorship into a democracy begins. As fighting continues, the White House is meeting with Iraqi exiles to try to create a provisional government — a task many say will be torturous, perhaps even impossible, in this divided nation, ripe with scores to be settled. Winning the peace.
Guests:
Bathsheba Crocker, International Affairs Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and lead author “Post-War Iraq: Are We Ready?”;Sandra Mackey, author of “The Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein.”