The Iraq Study Group
Contradictions within the ISG report doom its implementation (if any) to failure. On the bright side, the report strongly supports those who object to an escalation of the Iraq war into Iran. It also locates Iraq in a wider set of foreign policy problems—helpfully calling for more negotiations across the Middle East—and it offers a number of moderately important procedural recommendations to do with intelligence, budgeting the war transparently, etc. Its downside is that it tends to strongly perpetuate the view that some fine-tuning of policy associated with a continued US occupation can produce an acceptable outcome. Not only is this entirely untrue, it tends to invisibly drive policy into the very escalation the report seemingly condemns.
Face facts: We are in the middle of a civil war in Iraq. For reasons too diverse to enumerate this is an untenable position, but the longer we attempt to maintain our occupation the greater the temptation to take sides. And that could only be one side, with the Sunnis.
Senior US diplomats, like sheep, will rally around the notion that if the US, with Saudi assistance, puts the Sunnis back on top of the heap we can shut down the Iraqi civil war and restore some kind of stability. But that 'option', if it ever had potential, has long since passed us by. There is today no chance that Iran and other regional players will acquiesce in a US de facto restoration of the Baathist regime, sans Saddam.
And there is one other, serious problem with the ISG report. It implicitly assumes that US military superiority cannot be challenged in Iraq. Perhaps this is a function of the huge cost of the war and the natural desire to believe that hundreds of billions of dollars can buy something tangible. But our dominance rests on sand—literally as well as figuratively. No law of war prevents US forces in Iraq from being cut off from their supply lines and forced into an indecorous retreat. Indeed, the longer we stay the more likely such a scenario becomes.
Only one option makes sense. Plan the most rapid withdrawal possible and do it.
Posted by George Kenney on December 8, 2006 2:52 PM 
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Comments
We're there to assure US control of the oil supply. We can't leave and also guarantee
our continued "American way of life."
While any moral person would support simply getting out, we've gotten ourselves between a rock and a hard place. There is no solution which solves all problems.
Interesting times? No.
Posted by: mark branham | December 9, 2006 8:46 AM