THE PRESIDENT: Yes — what President Chirac and others have said is they want to make sure that the transfer of sovereignty to the interim government is a real transfer. And that’s what we want. We want there to be a complete and real transfer of sovereignty so that the Iraqi citizens realize the fate of their country is now their responsibility. And we’ll be there to help. And we’ll help in a variety of ways.
Isn’t there a joke about this? The joke is definitely on anyone who believes we invaded a country just to hand power to its citizens with no strings attached.
Anyway, here we are five weeks from the “transfer of sovereignty” and coalition of the willing leaders are busy working out the final minor details. Like whether or not the Iraqi government will have any say over the 138,000 foreign troops within the country.
Looks like we’ve got everything set to go.