Just a few days ago the Iraq Study Group released its vaunted recommendations to the world that waited with baited breath. For weeks the press and TV reporters had anticipated the report with sky high expectations that the wise old men of a former administration would size up the situation and voila, make a few shrewd observations that President Bush, in his right wing dim witted manner had failed to grasp before, would gulp and have to implement immediately.
Well, the report is here and it contains some of the most insipid and meaningless insights available to humanity. Worse yet, these recommendations are so vapid and simple that most media types accept them immediately. They are at the level of the Rodney King slogan after he resisted arrest: "Why can't we all just get along?"
Why indeed, asks the ISG, can't we all get along? For example, this million dollar brain trust that met for weeks to discuss the Iraq War says, "Get Iran and Syria to help us win the War." Now that is brilliant. All we have to do is ask these two nations to put pressure on the Sunni and Shia suicide bombers to stop their killing and they will immediately cooperate with us.
No wonder President Bush is out of favor. He never thought of asking for assistance from Iran and Syria. And Rumsfeld was also negligent. No wonder he had to resign. The media experts can see right away why the wise old men of the ISG are so smart and Bush is so dumb.
But wait. Maybe we need to ask if Iran and Syria are motivated to help us win the war. But surely the ISG thought about that and asked these two nations first and they said, "We really love the USA and we want to see Bush and the Americans succeed." But when the co-chairs of the ISG were asked about the motivation of Iran and Syria we find that the group thinks they hate the US and want to see us defeated in Iraq. In fact, these two nations are actually training the suicide bombers and paying for the bombs!
I am a simple man that has no experience in Geo-political analysis, but I do understand competition. Let me put it this way. The Cincinnati Bengals are fighting for the right to go to the Super Bowl but Baltimore is way ahead of them. We cannot gain on Baltimore unless they lose to other teams. If Baltimore played another team last week and Coach Marvin Lewis wanted to see them lose, would it be likely that he could persuade the raven's coach to throw the game just to please Marvin and the Cincinnati fans?
Obviously the ISG knows nothing about football, basketball or warfare. They are ignorant about competition and motivation so they made ridiculous recommendations about cooperation in the Middle East. The ISG report is worse than bad for it sends the message to terrorists that the US is so weak and stupid that they can do anything they want. Second, it puts the President into a Double Bind. It is a Catch 22 and the media lemmings love it.
To use another sports analogy. We elect men and women to office to run our government that we would never allow to coach one of our sports. Most of them would give up as soon as the other team started to fight back. If a coach cannot stand tough for four quarters and cannot stand to see his players injured he cannot be a coach. But he can be a Senator or Representative.
I do not know what to do in Iraq. It is a mess and it is difficult. But, I also know that meaningless and impossible suggestions make things worse. James Baker retired after a distinguished career in government. He mistakenly came out of retirement thinking he was still able to throw a 100 mile an hour fast ball. Unfortunately he is living in a fantasy camp with a 40 mile slow ball.
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