AMDINISTRATION ABRUPTLY SHIFTS IRAQ SOVEREIGNITY POLICY

[mburbank]

"To think that somehow you could tomorrow wake up and say, 'OK. Fine. Give sovereignty back to the Iraqi people,' before you have a constitution, before you've had elections, before you've had the institutions of democracy put in place is not a reasonable statement to make."
-Colin Powell, September, Meet the Press

"We're staying the course to realize our same goal."
Press secretary Scott Mclellan, White house briefing, yesterday

"The president agreed that we couldn't wait for a constitution to be written. The system can't handle it."
Administration Official, NYT, today