Richard Warnick“There goes the Middle East”
DailyKos has an insider’s view of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group (ISG). The source is anonymous but “trusted” according to the poster. The ISG is expected to recommend a regional conference to encourage more responsible behavior toward Iraq by Syria, Iran and other neighboring countries. Here’s an excerpt, the whole thing is worth reading too:
In my private opinion, the ten ISG commissioners are approaching a consensus that there is no way the United States, alone or in concert with the present Iraqi central government, can influence decisively the domestic problems in Iraq to a degree that would meet President Bush’s criteria for “success” (the new euphemism for the conditions that were, until very recently, referred to as “victory”.)
Further, I believe that the ISG’s recommendations, while not specifically acknowledging this discouragement, will reflect a common agreement to recast the whole Iraq problem in terms that they must all realize full well the president and vice president will find unacceptable.
Anticipating this unwelcome result, I expect that the White House will begin, even before the ISG’s report is ready, to downplay the importance of its recommendations in order to justify acceptance of alternative strategies that are being prepared concurrently by the Defense Department and the NSC. Those, I am certain, will continue to promote the delusion that “success” is still a realistic objective in Iraq.
Such obstinate denial of reality will keep the policy waters muddied, the Iraqi Government adrift and divided, and the violence continuing unabated, until the United States has lost the last vestiges of its political credibility and military leverage. The initiative will at that point have passed completely to the radical elements all over the region whose influence we most fear. There goes the Middle East.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:36 am
Very interesting.
Of all the things brought up in the Kos post, the one that is the most important is the regional conference. It has been frustrating to watch the Bush administration alienate Iran and other regional neighbors, and I hope that this of all proposals is used and embraced.
No easy answers. Removing a regime and government is easy, creating a new government is quite hard — especially when those in power stubbornly refuse to consider the region and environment in which the new nation must operates.
November 28th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Been gone so long, its almost time for it to come around again.