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Iraq Study Group Release Report

Update: Start out by watching the group presser video at MsUnderestimated, then watch her video of Bill Kristol’s comments. After that, Bryan Preston has a must read.

You can download it here or read the full text at Wake Up America.

In a nutshell, the leaks were pretty accurate. Withdraw significant number of troops within 16 months, and talk to Iran and Syria. Yikes!

Allah Pundit says the verdict is…Success is not an option. The defeatist crowd has spoken…America has already lost.

Although the study group will present its plan as a much-needed course change in Iraq, many of its own advisers concluded during its deliberations that the war is essentially already lost, according to private correspondence obtained yesterday and interviews with participants. The best the commission could put forward would be the “least bad” of many bad options, as former ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer wrote.

An early working draft from July stated that “there is even doubt that any level of resources could achieve the administration’s stated goals, given the illiberal and undemocratic political forces, many of them Islamic fundamentalists, that will dominate large parts of the country for a long time.”…

Much debate in e-mail exchanges among the most outspoken advisers to the study group focused on whether adding troops would help. But most feared that bringing in the large numbers required would break the military, lead to a surge in U.S. deaths and do nothing to better protect civilians.
In the end, the experts did not agree on sending additional forces beyond military advisers for the Iraqi national army. They seemed certain that Bush would reject most of their recommendations and that few could work anyway.

“Very early on, the notion of achieving some sort of victory didn’t take,” said Chas W. Freeman Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. “So if victory is not possible and not feasible, even if you could define it, then what you’re left with is to find some way to mitigate defeat.“

Rick Moran:

You will excuse me if I believe that talking to Syria while it is in the process of gobbling up its tiny Lebanese neighbor to be one of the most cynical, immoral, and ill-considered diplomatic ideas in a generation – which of course is right up Baker’s alley. He is a specialist at sacrificing others for the greater good; just ask the Iraqi Kurds.

And talking to the fanatical true believers in Iran (Ahmadinejad purged the foreign service last year, replacing experienced hands with ideological purists) about helping with security in Iraq is like inviting the wolf in for a drink and having Little Red Riding Hood give him a lap dance; the temptation to insinuate themselves even more into Iraqi affairs just might be too much to resist.

I don’t know if there is a way to “victory” in Iraq. Clearly the rest of the world has already made up its mind (not to mention the American media) that we have lost so that no matter what we do in Iraq, how we leave it, what we accomplish from here on out, the onus of defeat will accompany our withdrawal.

Macsmind:

It’s a sad day for America as the panel spits on the grave of every soldier, sailor and marine who have given their lives in this struggle and prove once again that the gut we had to win WWII is long gone. The verdict is in, the ISG just told the Islamic extremist, “We can’t hack it, you win!”

If we as the people of the United States accept this defeat then what is coming, and come it surely will, we will richly deserve.

Allahpundit:

In the end, the Commission’s using the same strategy McCain is (allegedly), albeit in the opposite direction: he claims more troops will help, they claim fewer troops will. Bush can’t really embrace either option, though, and they know it. As things get worse, each will point to his failure to adopt their own recommendations to explain why things fell apart. Big help, but that’s his fault entirely for not having done all that he could in Iraq when the country still had the political will to do it.

I think in the end, no matter what direction we take, it will be blamed on Bush. If he gives in to the recommendations of “mitigating defeat” he will deserve the blame.

Meanwhile, one Democrat boldly stand out from the crowd.

In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to “dismantle the militias.”

Bill Kristol on FOX:

There really do make recommendations and they dismiss the other options and four pages. It is not a serious document. They’ re all charming guys, and it is nice they have reached a consensus, but it is not a serious document. They discuss the alternatives to try to win the war, getting out quickly–three pages. Quickly in three pages. There is no discussion of military strategy. If we are in a crisis, the iraqi government is not going to get up to speed in the next few months. That is the timeframe we are talking about. I did not have high expectations. Having glanced through it, I am angry. It is deeply irresponsible.

Ace:

If the war in Iraq is truly lost, then fine — it’s lost. Then let’s get out, but let’s keep open the option of attacking the malignant cancer of Iran. Only James Baker could figure out a way to not only lose a war he believes is lost, but compound that loss by furthermore making the appeasement of the world’s most dangerous state a further insult to our injury.

Indeed, this is the one element of the report that bothers me the most. I’m hoping President Bush takes these suggestions with a huge grain of salt. I’m also hoping he finds his spine again very soon.

PJM has a good roundup including Bush’s initial reaction:

“I urge the members of congress to take this report very seriously. They won’t agree with every proposal – we won’t agree with every proposal, it’s an opportunity to come together and work together on this important issue.”

“The country is tired of pure political bickering…this report will give us all an opportunity to find common ground for the good of the country. Not for the good of the Republican party or the Democratic party, but for the country.”

Thanking the members of the committee who prepared the report, he said. “You could be doing a lot of other things, you could be having a more simple life than having your country call you back into service….we applaud your work. I will take it very seriously.”

QandO stays optimistic and says we can still be successful.

The Rottweiller…not so much optimism:

Ah, but of course. Merely creating a defeat and handing the ululating apes an enormous victory over the Great Satanic Paper Tiger isn’t enough for Baker’s Bunch of Frenchies. Oh no, we have to make absolutely sure that Ahmadinnerjacket and Pencilneck Assad know that they’ve won by making concessions and granting them legitimacy by groveling before them.

The only rational way of “dealing directly” with psychotic regimes like those of Syria and Iran is by force. Overwhelming, uncompromising force. If you start negotiating with the pathologically insane, you only buy them time to perfect the plans they’re going to carry out anyway, making the cost of the inevitable confrontation much more horrible with every passing day of inactivity. I thought that we learned that back in the 1930s, but obviously some people are exceedingly slow learners.

Move America Forward Headlines in an email:

IRAQ STUDY GROUP A COMPLETE FAILURE:

Report Makes Few Constructive Proposals

Advocates Cooperation With Sponsors Of Terrorism: Iran & Syria

LGF Reports on the Muslim Reaction:

The Iraq Study Group’s report was the top headline in many Arab newspapers on Thursday, including the Egyptian opposition daily Al-Wafd, which declared: “Bush confesses defeat in Iraq.” The paper’s editor-in-chief, Anwar el-Hawari, predicted that at the very least, the Middle East will not hear from Bush for the coming 24 months.

“Practically, this means that this is the real end of Bush rule, his policies and the neo-conservative groups. This also means that the coming two years left in his term will be a period of a political vacuum,” he wrote.

Joseph Samaha, editor-in-chief of Lebanese opposition daily Al-Akhbar, said that, even before the study group’s report found shortcomings in the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, Arabs had already concluded that Iraq had turned into a “holocaust for American claims.”

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Posted by Jay on December 6, 2006 12:44 pm

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One Response to “Iraq Study Group Release Report”

  1. Carl on December 6th, 2006 1:31 pm

    A group of pointy-headed intellectuals who have been in Iraq exactly once and never out of the green zone expects the President and the American public, especially those of us who support the troops and believe the job needs to be successfully completed before the troops come home to accept and embrace their report…er…opinion as authoritative and comprehensive? I don’t think so.

    I believe the President will take the information for what it is worth, but give more credance to the commanders in the fields who know more about the Iraqi situation than the study group as a whole.

    However, the cut-and-run crowd is crowing loudly with the “I told ya so”’s and I imagine the Murtha’s and Kerry’s in congress will step up their anti-Iraq, anti-Bush and anti-victory rhetoric starting today.

    It is beginning to look as if Iraq is doomed thanks to the American press, the liberal extremists and the cut-and-runners in congress.

    And when the cut-and-runners succeed in bringing the troops home prematurely I guaran-damn-tee terrorists worldwide will be greatly emboldened and will brazenly attack Americans both abroad and on home soil. Then those same people who cause the emboldenments will deny their responsibilities as the cowards they are. I have no respect for them now and I won’t have respect for them in the future.

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