Baker Commission Report (1 Viewer)

[Simon W. Moon]

Here it is in all of its .pdf glory


Iraq Study Group: United States Institute of Peace

 

[tecoyah]

......Rather Depressing.....

 

[Volker]

They had this somehow mean comment by Mr. Bleskin about it on n-tv.

He was like 5 Republicans and 5 Democrats and 44 employees have been working on it since March, 207 experts have been asked and they went to Iraq for 4 days.

They get a result which every better student could have written at home in 4 days.

Not one of the 79 recommendations is new.

 

[oldreliable67]

Perhaps the most systemic problem with the report is it didn't tell us how to win; it answered how to get out. The commissioners answered the wrong question, but it was the one they wanted to answer.

"In all my time in Washington I've never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible. "

...William J Bennet

 

[Simon W. Moon]

I see it kind of like dieting.

We got a bunch of experts together to come up with a revolutionary diet plan.

They came back and told us, "Eat less and exercise more."
​

Some folks are disappointed there wasn't a better/easier solution we hadn't heard already.

 

[oldreliable67]

Typical committee.

SG "Consensus" Doesn't Include Military Advisors

There was a lot of backslapping and talk of "consensus" yesterday when the ISG members held their press conference. But evidently some of the retired military officers who advised the panel disagree with the report’s primary security recommendation. The NYT’s Michael Gordon reports:

By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq,” the study group says.

Jack Keane, the retired acting Army chief of staff who served on the group’s panel of military advisers, described that goal as entirely impractical. “Based on where we are now we can’t get there,” General Keane said in an interview, adding that the report’s conclusions say more about “the absence of political will in Washington than the harsh realities in Iraq.”

The group’s final military recommendations were not discussed with the retired officers who serve on the group’s Military Senior Adviser Panel before publication, several of those officers said.

Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four-star general, said in an interview that the overall concept of withdrawing American forces as the Iraqis built up their military capability was sound. But he argued that the specific recommendations by the panel raised a second problem: if American combat brigades were withdrawn from Iraq, the thousands of American advisers who remained might find themselves dangerously exposed, particularly if the fighting in Iraq grew into a full-scale civil war. The advisers could be killed or taken hostage.

“They came up with a political thought but then got to tinkering with tactical ideas that in my view don’t make any sense,” General McCaffrey said. “This is a recipe for national humiliation.”

Posted by Daniel McKivergan at The Weekly Standard

 

[Hoot]

What I don't understand about the report is it basically gives Bush the go ahead to 'stay the course' for another year, or more? (Begin troop withdrawal first quarter of 2008)

Didn't this last election indicate that Americans want solutions to Iraq, not more of the same?

To me, the ISG says nothing, yet some republicans refer to it as the Iraq Surrender Plan?!

From what I've read, none of the members of the ISG had any background in the history or study of the Middle East.

Once the Dems assume power in January, I say simply reuse to give Bush any more money for this war in his next budget. (If Bush even knows what a budget is?)

 

[Volker]

What I don't understand about the report is it basically gives Bush the go ahead to 'stay the course' for another year, or more? (Begin troop withdrawal first quarter of 2008)

No, you got this wrong, it says end of troop withdrawal in first quarter of 2008 for combat troops.

By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq.

It's page seven of the report.

From what I've read, none of the members of the ISG had any background in the history or study of the Middle East.

They had 207 experts to ask.

Once the Democrats assume power in January, I say simply reuse to give Bush any more money for this war in his next budget. (If Bush even knows what a budget is?)

I doubt, they will do so immediately.