There can be no assurance that the transaction willbe completed, or if it is completed, thatitwill close within the anticipated time period or that the expected benefits of the transaction willberealized.
What is more, given the intractable verification problems associated with monitoring some of the forces to be reduced, it is impossible to have great confidence that the promised benefits of such agreements will actually berealized.
But of course I also realizedthat no matter what happened it would all be a worthwhile drill for the future disasters thatwill inevitably come our way.
It is predictable that at some point, if Mr. Bush's vision is realized, an effort willbe made to forge a single nation to include all the people of "Palestine" (doubtless appealing as well to Israel's Arab citizens).