Op-Ed Columnist: A Deliberate Debacle: "Mr. Wolfowitz's official rationale for the contract policy is astonishingly cynical: 'Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in future efforts' — future efforts? — and 'should encourage the continued cooperation of coalition members.' Translation: we can bribe other nations to send troops.
[In addition,] ... many insiders see Mr. Baker's mission as part of an effort by veterans of the first Bush administration to extricate George W. Bush from the hard-liners' clutches. If the mission collapses amid acrimony over contracts, that's a good thing from the hard-liners' point of view.
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- posted by geoff @ #