Saturday, December 02, 2006

Baker-Hamilton

Well, it almost seems that it's not necessary to publish the report at all so much of it has been leaked to the Washington Post. It also seems that there is not going to be all that much new in it. Then again how many new ideas can there be for solving the mess in Iraq.

The one recommendation that of talking with Iran and Syria has already been rejected by the Bush administration so I guess we're back to stay the course.

This just shows that getting rid of Rumsfeld made very little difference because the thinking at the top hasn't changed any. And now there is talking of adding more troops for a short period of time and concentrating them in Baghdad. How will they do this? They accomplish this by extending the stay of troops that have already been there a year and were supposed to come home. At what point does the ability of the armed forces to do their jobs is imperiled by this sort of a policy.

5 comments:

Arthur Schenck said...

"the thinking at the top hasn't changed any"

Wait a minute...has the WaPo reported on this yet? I always thought that the problem was that there's never been any thinking at the top of the Bush Admin. What a shock to learn that there was some! But who's turn was it to use the brain cell that day?

Jason in DC said...

Ever other day or so there's some leak about what the commision is going to recommend. It sounds like nothing really new. Mostly it's putting all the potential ideas in one document.

The big debate here is whether it's a civil war or not which sort of begs the questions

Anonymous said...

Plus Bush said over the weekend he's not going to use the study group's report as justification to pull troops or make any other moves. And because Bush is a lame duck, he doesn't have to care about the consequences. In the words of Bill Walton: Wwhat is he thinking? Is he thinking at all?

He must be thinking of his legacy. He wants to me known as the Stay the Course President who followed the Iraq war to its logical doom. Wheee! — Ed

Arthur Schenck said...

How's this Gates guy's testimony going over? Here, the media seemed somewhat surprised by his "forthrightness" (putting that in quotes betrays my scepticism). Do you think Bush will be forced to talk with Iran and Syria?

As for Bush's legacy, I sure hope he's aiming to be remembered as the worst President ever, because that's what he's heading towards at the moment.

Jason in DC said...

There are also two other reports being prepared for Bush to read (yes I know reading that most likely they're being read to him). I'm beginning to think that will happen is it will be like a Chinese menu. One item from column one or two from column two.

In the end don't look for something new and amazing the time for that has long passed.