Posted on 11/13/2006 8:39:33 AM PST by ZeitgeistSurfer
Every so often I visit the family crypt of the Wittelsbacher dynasty in Munich's Frauenkirche, to make sure that the former kings of Bavaria are still there. They give every appearance of being dead, but deceased undesirables have a way of showing up at inconvenient moments - for example, former US secretary of state James Baker III. Like King Saul conjuring the spirit of the prophet Samuel, President George W Bush has conjured the undead of his father's administration, namely the Baker-Hamilton "Iraq Study Group". Samuel's ghost told Saul in effect (I Kings 28), "You're toast," and the unfortunate president will hear the same message from his new defense secretary, Robert M Gates, and the rest of his fellow spooks.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Conservatives are desprate here looking for the faintest
glimmer of hope.
You are correct if I remember right the clowns Bush is
brigning in are the failed clowns from Bush I's debacle.
I've only heard a little bit about the Iraq Study Group.
I have to admit that I'm not thrilled about the composition of this committee.
I get the feeling they're gonna advocate a splitting-up of Iraq into Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni areas.
Does the jibe with what you're seeing?
The split appears to be on the table for consideration (according to a news brief last night.) However, Turkey would never tolerate an independent Kurdish state on its borders. Syria will soon assimilate the Sunnis and Iran the Shiites. We will frame this exit strategy as a win.
That's true.
The Turks wouldn't tolerate it - unless a sufficiently large carrot were dangled in front of them.
That carrot is EU membership, something Turkey has wanted for a long time.
The million dollar question is whether the EU would agree to this.
Regarding the Shiites and Sunnis, I'd see the Saudis are being a bigger player than Syria. The Shiites? Who the hell knows?
Religiously, the Shiites relate well to Iran - but politically? I'm not sure Iraq's Shiites want to end up as a province (literally or figuratively) of Iraq.
Yes. Leon Panetta, a local hack leftist ex-politician here in Calif is on the panel.
That says a lot. Similar to what Jaime Gorelick on the 9/11 Commission said.
Expect Panel goals to be a mix of proposed sure-fail policies.
More worrisome so the odds Bush may do like the Calif Governator did, "Today, a Republican. Tomorrow, a Democrat." Small wonder the Repubs took a beating. Pork and no spine for years. Soft & fat.
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