More of the Same
The Baker Hamilton Iraq Study was released yesterday, and contained, well, nothing that hasn't been suggested by others already.
If you were looking to it, as many of us were, for some bold initiative, it's not there. Instead, more troops for a while, don't leave immediately, and get the region involved are what it suggests.
Some methods may be slightly different than the JCS review, or Abizaid's, or Rumsfeld's suggestions from just before he was canned, but for the most part the commission gave us warmed over left over ideas.
Paul Harvey mentioned yesterday that it pointed to "more of the same". David Ignatius of the Washington Post says "The Iraq Study Group's report achieved the goal of any blue-ribbon commission: It stated the obvious, emphatically."
I haven't seen any commentary yet that derides the Baker Hamilton group for saying Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki means well, but he "has taken little meaningful action" against militias. Yet Steve Hadley was roasted on Sunday morning talk shows for suggesting the same thing in a memo to the president. Maybe he didn't say it in a bipartisan enough way.
Possibly the biggest laugher is the idea of getting Iran and Syria to help in Iraq. For some reason I'm reminded of foxes and hen houses every time that suggestion is made. The US has no stick to use with either country, and they evidently think our carrots are grown in Israel, because they generally shy away from them. Which means the greater world would have to threaten and cajole them to get any meaningful help from them in stopping the flow of weapons and fighters into Iraq. Something tells me that won't be happening anytime soon.
So, sorry folks, if you were looking to Baker Hamilton for the "Magic Bullet", it's not their, they admit it.
Technorati Tags: Baker, Hamilton, Iraq Study Group, Iran, Syria, Politics, Bush, Middle East
If you were looking to it, as many of us were, for some bold initiative, it's not there. Instead, more troops for a while, don't leave immediately, and get the region involved are what it suggests.
Some methods may be slightly different than the JCS review, or Abizaid's, or Rumsfeld's suggestions from just before he was canned, but for the most part the commission gave us warmed over left over ideas.
Paul Harvey mentioned yesterday that it pointed to "more of the same". David Ignatius of the Washington Post says "The Iraq Study Group's report achieved the goal of any blue-ribbon commission: It stated the obvious, emphatically."
I haven't seen any commentary yet that derides the Baker Hamilton group for saying Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki means well, but he "has taken little meaningful action" against militias. Yet Steve Hadley was roasted on Sunday morning talk shows for suggesting the same thing in a memo to the president. Maybe he didn't say it in a bipartisan enough way.
Possibly the biggest laugher is the idea of getting Iran and Syria to help in Iraq. For some reason I'm reminded of foxes and hen houses every time that suggestion is made. The US has no stick to use with either country, and they evidently think our carrots are grown in Israel, because they generally shy away from them. Which means the greater world would have to threaten and cajole them to get any meaningful help from them in stopping the flow of weapons and fighters into Iraq. Something tells me that won't be happening anytime soon.
So, sorry folks, if you were looking to Baker Hamilton for the "Magic Bullet", it's not their, they admit it.
Technorati Tags: Baker, Hamilton, Iraq Study Group, Iran, Syria, Politics, Bush, Middle East
posted by Crazy Politico at 5:19 AM
4Comments:
Got any better ideas?
PT, small thermonuclear weapons come to mind, but the world is so touch about those. The thing is, we've shown it only takes kilotons to get folks attention.
LP, I don't think he is, I did forget to mention that he also tried solving the Palestinian problem in the Iraq report, guess it's actually the "greater middle east" report.
Sadly there are only two solutions: surrender or take the fight to the next level (which we should have done years ago.)
Were mistakes made? Yeah!
The biggest flaw was not dealing with Iraqs neighbors as quickly as we dealt with Saddam.
BRILLIANT!!!
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