And while I'm at it
Just a couple of thoughts that keep rattling around in my head. I invite you to respond (in part so that I don't feel like I'm talking to myself.)
1. The vaunted emphasis of the Iraq Study Group on coming to a consensus, and the need for unity, is really a failing. The group itself is composed of the most-inside insiders, because they're the type of serious people who can achieve consensus. And the need for consensus virtually assured they would not hear or consider "crazy" points of view from people who, I don't know, were right about the folly of this war from the start.
2. The idea that the ISG report would somehow give the President "political cover to change course" was just another naive pipedream. He ain't changing course.
3. Maybe I missed it, but I don't feel like I have seen anything even approaching a coherent rationale for why we should stay in Iraq even a minute longer than is necessary. (Of course, I'm still waiting for a coherent rationale for going there in the first place.)
The Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, don't want us there. They haven't demonstrated that they want to unite to form a democratic secular government.
So why stay? To prevent an all-out civil war, with the grim prospect of Balkan-style ethnic cleansing? My impression is that that is more or less already underway, and we have very little ability to control it. We are used by each side when we are useful, and attacked when we are in the way. But I don't sense we are in any better position to stop this from happening now than we would be if we were out of Iraq and over the horizon.
1. The vaunted emphasis of the Iraq Study Group on coming to a consensus, and the need for unity, is really a failing. The group itself is composed of the most-inside insiders, because they're the type of serious people who can achieve consensus. And the need for consensus virtually assured they would not hear or consider "crazy" points of view from people who, I don't know, were right about the folly of this war from the start.
2. The idea that the ISG report would somehow give the President "political cover to change course" was just another naive pipedream. He ain't changing course.
3. Maybe I missed it, but I don't feel like I have seen anything even approaching a coherent rationale for why we should stay in Iraq even a minute longer than is necessary. (Of course, I'm still waiting for a coherent rationale for going there in the first place.)
The Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, don't want us there. They haven't demonstrated that they want to unite to form a democratic secular government.
So why stay? To prevent an all-out civil war, with the grim prospect of Balkan-style ethnic cleansing? My impression is that that is more or less already underway, and we have very little ability to control it. We are used by each side when we are useful, and attacked when we are in the way. But I don't sense we are in any better position to stop this from happening now than we would be if we were out of Iraq and over the horizon.
posted by Ish at 10:15 AM
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