"Pinned by Reality" Posted by Heather Hurlburt

The LA Times has that pungent comment from Reuel Marc Gerecht on how members of the Iraq Study Group must be feeling.

Since I'll be working several conferences on December 6, and won't have time to blog the study group's report As It Happens, I'll have to blog the "leak" instead.

Folks have been hoping the Study Group report would answer two key questions:  when are we getting our troops out of Iraq, and what are we leaving behind -- instruments to preserve any level of stability, national boundaries, regional arrangements, long-term US role in the region -- in our wake?  If our vision of the future is no longer a Middle East transformed by democracy with an Iraqi ally at its center, what is it?

Maybe it's inevitable that the leak reporting focuses on the troop question -- of most immediate interest to Americans -- and the most controversial recommendations, those involving talk to Syria and Iran.  (Though that is only controversial these days because of this Administration's strange idea that we can avoid talking to people we don't like.)

And I certainly understand that the panel couldn't reach a single clear position on troop withdrawals, and so put forward a tendency rather than a timetable, if you will.

But the trouble with that is that it give nobody any indication of what our best and worst scenarios for what the region looks like in 2-5 years are, and what we need to be doing to favor the best and defend against the worst.  Where do we need troops to stay, if anywhere?  To do what? 

I'm hoping that the Study Group's report has some really smart thinking about this, that just didn't lend itself to "leaking."  Sometimes it's hard to see the forest when you're pinned by a tree.  But if they couldn't place the stakes in a larger context, who will?

Comments

[Don Bacon]

After eight months of gestation we'll get a still-born report, the product of people who know next to nothing about Iraq, the Middle East or the military.

The larger context is that we will stay in Iraq until (1) forever or (2) we are forced out militarily. Gates, the go-along guy from the CIA, will be a new face on an old policy. (So much for the voters' mandate. How can we get a more democratic parliamentary system?)

Having said that, who can predict the future? Nobody.

[Amy1022]

This report should recommend that we add poverty reduction and achievment of the UN Millennium Development Goals to our foreign policy in Iraq/the Middle East. According to the Borgen Project, poverty reduction will impact issues of terrorism and national security.

[flagrl118]

Definitely, Amy1022! The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals will reduce global instability and improve our national security. According to the Borgen Project, it will also improve the condition of the Iraqi citizens as well as cost much less than the amount we are spending on this war.

[Cayle]

The UN Millennium Development Goals definitely need to be addressed. Global poverty is an issue that deserves attention and can be eradicated within our lifetime. Whether it begins in Iraq or not, accomplishing the UN Millennium Development Goals will make life better for citizens around the world.

[Dan Kervick]

Are Amy, flagrl and Cayle the same person, or do they just belong to the same organization? I'm sold on the MDG, but this activist spamming of each and every thread here is getting a bit tiresome.

[Don Bacon]

Definitely, Dan Kervick! (We're not the same person, luckily for Dan).

Talking about reducing poverty in a country where too many people are being tortured and killed weekly in a brutal occupation and civil war is stupid and tiresome. You've made your point, Borgenite(s), please move on. How about Daily Kos?

Again, it isn't poverty that causes war, it's greed, and we now see that the US government's greed shows no signs of abating as the result of elections.

These Borgenites are bordering on trolling, and I must admit that I was a bit of a troll myself recently on Michael Signer's last posting. I'm not proud of it. Full disclosure: I was really disappointed that Signer gave us a movie review instead of some insight into Senator-elect Webb (Signer worked for him), who more and more seems to be someone who will stand up to frat boy Bush. Any solution to Iraq won't come from the bogus ISG, it'll come from anyone (Webb?) who has the balls to stand up to Bush/Cheney. Are there any patriots left?

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