The ISG has not just been attacked by left and right, Democrat and Republican. It has invited ridicule. Seventy-nine recommendations. Interdependent, insists Baker. They should be taken as a whole. "I hope we don’t treat this like a fruit salad and say, ‘I like this but I don’t like that.’" On the basis of what grand unifying vision? On the authority of what superior wisdom? A 10-person commission including such Middle East experts as Sandra Day O’Connor, Alan Simpson and Vernon Jordan?
This kind of bipartisan elder-statesmen commission is perfectly appropriate as a consensus-building exercise for, say, a long-range problem such as Social Security. It is a ludicrous mechanism for devising strategic changes in the middle of a war.
Exactly. Who better than the Commander-In-Chief, in concert with the many tools at his disposal and in concurrence with the law, to decide how to prosecute a war? A "bipartisan" group of professional career politicians and diplomats to figure out the end to a war, with no regard to victory? No thanks. This whole affair calls to mind the old adage-" A rhinoceros is a unicorn designed by committee". Krauthammer writes
the commission never attempts to come up with a plan for actually succeeding. Its only new initiative is to go regional, and involve neighboring Syria and Iran.
Syria should stop infiltration, declares the report. And Iran “should stem the flow of equipment, technology, and training to any group resorting to violence in Iraq.” Yes, and obesity should be eradicated, bird flu cured, and traffic fatalities, particularly the multicar variety, abolished. Such fatuous King Canute pronouncements give the report its air of detachment from reality.
Precisely. Much like the silly Kellogg-Briand Pact sought to make war illegal, the ISG’s conclusions and suggestions, if ever actually implemented will never really work. But that doesn’t really matter. As long as the "respected" elder statesmen get the accolades and attention they all know they each so richly deserve, it will mean ultimate success in their minds.
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Read Charles’ entire column here. He points out that this pollyanna-ish report might actually provide President Bush with an opportunity should he choose to seize it.