Iraq Study Group Report: Helpful?
December 8th, 2006 by PerryThe Iraq Study Group Report is an attempt by a non-partisan commission to get President Bush to change his definition of “victory”.
Even our new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, confirmed by a vote of 95-2 yesterday, thinks we are losing in Iraq.
A military “victory” is not possible, the Iraq Study Group has unanimously concluded. Moreover, they maintain that a continuing military effort in Iraq is unsustainable without the support of the American people.
Basically the Iraq Study Group is saying that Bush has completed his mission there, consequently now is the time to turn the rest of the mission over to the Iraqis in a timely and orderly fashion.
This will be very difficult for Bush to accept, because he went over there to dump Saddam, to have some control over oil, and to establish a military position there. (Forget all the WMD, al-Qaida link, and the nuclear threat garbage we were fed!) He succeeded only on the first objective.
Obviously, therefore, Bush has had to morph these superficial goals with the new one: A stable, democratic Iraq government able to provide its own security and rebuild the infrastructure. So far this objective has not been achieved under our guidance; in fact, the situation on the Iraqi ground has grown seriously worse, a civil war many now say, including Colin Powell. So Bush must change his strategy and tactics. Will he?
We need to invoke a comprehensive diplomatic effort involving Iraq’s neighbors, we need to better train and equip Iraqi security and police, and we need to focus on helping to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, recommends this Iraq Study Group.
Will Bush sign on to these recommendations? I think he will try to “Stay the course!”, but use more moderate rhetoric to make it look as if he has signed on. That’s his style!
It is a good thing that control of Congress has changed, because now it will not be so easy for Cheney/Bush to wiggle to get their own way regardless.
Instead of stabilizing the Middle East, their neoconservative strategy as implemented has done the reverse. There was no way that such a strategy based on US dominance in the Middle East would ever have worked, in my view.
The Iraq Study Group has provided the nucleus of a new plan for Iraq, a plan that is actually an exit plan. Will Cheney/Bush listen? I believe they are going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into this exit plan, so Congressional oversight will be needed to git er done!!!
So YES, the Iraq Study Group Report will be immensely helpful in this internal political battle to follow!!!
December 8th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
“The Iraq Study Group Report is an attempt by a non-partisan commission to get President Bush to change his definition of “victoryâ€.
I stopped reading at the first paragraph because you made a factual error in the very first sentence.
December 8th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Typical!
Moreover, you are not correct!!!
December 9th, 2006 at 9:50 am
It most certainly is NOT “non-partisan.” You can say it’s bi-partisan, or poly partisan or whatever you’d like, but everyperson on the panel is most definitely a partisan.
December 9th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
OK, I’ll buy that: Bipartisan
December 9th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Ok, then I’ll go ahead and read the rest.
December 10th, 2006 at 7:55 am
Good!
I note that neither the Bush administration, nor the Israelis, nor the Iraqis like this Iraq Study Group plan.
That tells me that it must be an excellent plan!
Now Bush is telling us that we need to achieve ’success’; a week ago it was ‘victory’!
What is Bush’s objective, really? We never got a detailed statement of it. Oh sure, he states that we wish to achieve a “stable Iraq democracy able to provide for their own security”.
But what is it that Bush is leaving out about their oil and our military presence in Iraq, you know, our $600 million base under construction in the green zone in Baghdad and the 15 others scattered throughout Iraq?
To this day I do not believe that Bush has ever revealed the true reasons that he attacked and occupied their country!
December 10th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
He has most certainly revealed them. You just choose not to accept what has been revealed. Nothing in this “study” was outside the range of possibilities beforehand, in fact the study is nothing more than a list of possible actions that we might take.
The good news is that the Libs can now claim to be a part of the process (if it comes out well of course) and hopefully the rabid anti-Bush rhetoric will get toned down (in the MSM even if not on the WGMD Blog).
December 10th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Note, macb, I said the true reasons. If you know them, kindly enlighten me/us!
December 11th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
It is interesting to note the reaction by the neocon right to the Iraq Study Group recommendations, as exhibited the last few days.
The intention of the bipartisan ISG was to create a solution to our Middle East problems, Iraq especially, that would unite our divided country behind a policy, so Baker and Hamilton say.
We do not know and will not know the Bush administration’s response until the President delivers his response in a few weeks, probably a little before Christmas.
In the meantime the neocon right, exemplified by Limbaugh, the NY Post, the National Review, Richard Perle and the like, is intent on continuing to polarize the nation on this issue by characterizing the bipartisan ISG approach as “defeatist monkeys”. Moreover, McCain says he wants more troops sent in.
I don’t think anyone questions the fact that the situation in Iraq is “dire and deteriorating”, the result of the Bush administration war policies to date. Who do these people think they are to demand the continuation of this failed war policy?
Most importantly, can this war be brought to a successful conclusion when there is not sufficient political support in the nation even for the policies McCain favors.
The Bush administration must find their new policies not only to bring a successful conclusion to the Iraq War, but also one that can persuade the American people to support it, otherwise I’m afraid we will indeed have a Viet Nam-like ending once again.
President Bush’s pre-Christmas speech is going to be critical/crucial, perhaps the biggest challenge he has had in his two terms, even bigger than 9/11.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Correction, the term used for the ISG is “surrender monkeys”, not defeatist monkeys.