http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5094075/site/newsweek/June 7-14 issue - In his prime-time speech last week, George W. Bush HIT all his familiar themes—we must show resolve, stay the course, finish the job, etc. But this masks a very different reality. Over the past three weeks the Bush administration has reversed itself on virtually every major aspect of its Iraq policy. Thank goodness. These shifts might be too late to have a major effect, but they will certainly help. The administration has finally begun to adhere to Rule No. 1 when you're in a hole: stop digging. But it needs to go further and move decisively in a new direction.
Consider the magnitude of recent policy reversals:
The administration had stubbornly insisted that no more troops were needed in Iraq. But today, there are 20,000 additional soldiers in the country.
From the start it refused to give the U.N. any political role in Iraq. Now the U.N. is an indispensable partner, both in the June 30 transition and in preparing for elections.
Radical "de-Baathification," the pet project of the Pentagon and Ahmad Chalabi, has been overturned. The Army that was disbanded is being slowly re-created.
Heavy-handed military tactics have given way to a more careful political-military strategy in Fallujah, Karbala and Najaf that emphasizes a role for local leaders.
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Over the past few weeks we have seen a number of despondent editorials by former supporters of the war. They despair that Ahmad Chalabi will not be handed the keys to the country, that we are not crushing the insurgency with massive force, that we are sharing power with the United Nations, that Brahimi has been given so much power. This is a good omen. It means the grown-ups have taken control. It might not solve the many problems in Iraq. But it does mark the return of sanity to America's Iraq policy.
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