A Village Voice feature argues the Bush administration has given up on its stated goals of establishing a functing capitalist economy and democratic government and decided instead to withdraw in time for next November’s election:

“The American occupation would end July 1, 2004, and there wouldn’t be any constitution, just a bare-bones, nonspecific “basic law.” The original timetable for self-rule in Iraq was late 2004 or early 2005. It’s not that things are ahead of schedule. It is that we have lopped off half the game clock, and moved the end zone to our present stalemate point, the 50-yard line. Touchdown! Game over! Everyone into the locker room! …

The American death toll in Iraq approaches 500; the number of medical evacuations, as of mid December, is 10,854, most not reflected on the Pentagon’s website. …

“This is a plan that is entirely geared to create political peace in the United States from June to November,” Blumenthal observes. “Whether it has any relations to the facts on the ground is another question.”