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WITLESS 'WISDOM: BAKER'S WORTHLESS IRAQ ADVICE
New York Post ^ | 1 December 2006 | John Podorhetz

Posted on 12/01/2006 9:02:48 AM PST by shrinkermd

December 1, 2006 -- YES, it's been quite a week for the 10 members of the Iraq Study Group, the committee formed last spring to offer recommendations on a path forward in Iraq.

They had a wonderfully invigorating leak session the other day with The New York Times, which was the first recipient of the group's key top-level save-America recommendation. Co-chairmen James "Is There An Arab Dictator Nearby Whose Butt I Can Kiss" Baker and Lee "Yes, I'm Still Alive" Hamilton didn't even bother to pretend to brief the president or key lawmakers first.

The president could wait his turn. After all, this is the Iraq Study Group we're talking about here, buddy. Even the mighty Times was probably kept waiting for its leak, since the only person who could not be kept waiting was Annie Leibovitz, celebrity photographer nonpareil.

As Dana Milbank reports in The Washington Post, on Monday the group's "co-chairmen, James Baker and Lee Hamilton, found time . . . to pose for an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot for Men's Vogue."

The value of Annie Leibovitz's pictorial scoop might have been reduced somewhat when the president scornfully consigned the Iraq Study Group to the ash-heap of history yesterday with a single dismissive sentence during his press conference in Jordan: "This business about 'graceful exit' just simply has no realism to it whatsoever."

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: appeaser; arabist; baker; iraq; negotiate; terrorists; with; witlesswisdom; wot
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Great take by a master wordsmith. LOL
1 posted on 12/01/2006 9:02:50 AM PST by shrinkermd
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To: shrinkermd

I agree! This panel with Baker was a horrible idea!


2 posted on 12/01/2006 9:03:34 AM PST by PhiKapMom ( Go Sooners! Rudy 2008)
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To: shrinkermd
"This business about 'graceful exit' just simply has no realism to it whatsoever."
3 posted on 12/01/2006 9:04:51 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (Barack Hussein Obama)
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To: Jeff Chandler

I like the idea of a graceful exit. Into Iran.


4 posted on 12/01/2006 9:06:50 AM PST by Paloma_55 (I may be a hateful bigot, but I still love you)
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To: shrinkermd
A "study group"? Where do the meet? In the high school library?

James Baker is an arab kiss ass and has been for years.

5 posted on 12/01/2006 9:08:05 AM PST by isthisnickcool (If you can't light a fire in the vacuum of space what's the deal with the Sun?)
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To: PhiKapMom

Whats amazing is how these things ,good or bad ,get blown out of proportion by the media


6 posted on 12/01/2006 9:08:21 AM PST by woofie (This area deemed a failure, Something new and witty will no doubt emerge)
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To: shrinkermd
Baker -- the same guy who advised Reagan to criticize Israel in the harshest of terms and even to impose sanctions on them for having the guts/ability to destroy Saddam's nuclear reactor in '81.

An Arabist appeaser to the bone. ....and always has been.

7 posted on 12/01/2006 9:08:33 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: shrinkermd

I'm Neville Chamberlain. And I approve the Baker plan as I understand it. Peace in our time and all that...

8 posted on 12/01/2006 9:10:10 AM PST by Spiff (Death before Dhimmitude)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Thankfully the Gipper didn't take his stupid-ass advice.


9 posted on 12/01/2006 9:11:23 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: shrinkermd

The post modern age of Terror requires a new modus operandi in the world...not the staleness of Cold war positioning.

Waste of time...and effort.

I smell decay and stink emanating from their report.


10 posted on 12/01/2006 9:14:36 AM PST by eleni121 ( + En Touto Nika! By this sign conquer! + Constantine the Great))
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To: shrinkermd

Thanks for posting!

Bam! Pow! Kazowie! JP really pulls no punches on how he feels about this group of weanies.


11 posted on 12/01/2006 9:21:17 AM PST by Shelayne (...And though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm... ~~Casting Crowns)
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To: shrinkermd

I think James Baker and the rest of this know-nothing panel need to leave strategy up to the military. In my opinion, James Baker is part of the problem. George bush Sr. was too worried about preserving the failed international system and acting exactly according to UN wishes and Baker was a part of the decision process. Had we done the right thing in 1991 and either A) took Baghdad and forced a regime change or B) aggressively aided Kurdish and Shia insurrection, we would not be in this conflict at all. Baker was a fine cold-warrior, but he is inept at dealing with counter-insurgency.


12 posted on 12/01/2006 9:22:23 AM PST by Historix
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To: Mr. Mojo
Thankfully the Gipper didn't take his stupid-ass advice.

Yeah, but George Bush Sr. did,... and look where it got him.

I doubt the current Bush will do the same, but this Commission makes another handy club to beat him with. It will be enthusiastically used as such.

All I needed to know about this worthless commission I learned when I read the list of names. Most are compromising political hacks. There are only 2 decent men with any sense at all on it. That means common sense is outnumbered, 8-2.

My only surprise is the Commisssion didn't include Jamie Gorelick and whatever the name of that Mob Lawyer is (I simply don't care enough any more to look it up).

13 posted on 12/01/2006 9:23:46 AM PST by Gritty (America and its allies are either going to win this war or we're going to lose - John Podhoretz)
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To: Gritty
I'm also surprised Brent Scowcroft isn't a commission member.

...or his he?

14 posted on 12/01/2006 9:26:33 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

...."is he," that is.


15 posted on 12/01/2006 9:28:09 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Spiff

I don't think it's fair to insult Neville Chamberlain by linking him to this Iraq Study Group. At least when the shooting started in 1939, Chamberlain committed himself to victory. And after the Dunkirk disaster, Chamberlain didn't start looking for a "graceful exit from the war".


16 posted on 12/01/2006 9:40:51 AM PST by bobjam
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To: shrinkermd; PhiKapMom; Gritty
Note, the Baker Commission is John McCain's pound of flesh for letting the 2005 Iraqi Appropriation bill pass the US Senate. Remember the bill he had tied up with his "Torture Amendment"?

This was the brainchild of the chicken hearts that use to run the Republican controlled US Senate. It is a Congressional, not Presidential, Commission and was NEVER going anywhere. It is merely an attempt by the DC Old Boy's Club to grasp credit for "fixing" Iraq rather then admit they have been mostly wrong about Iraq from the start. Bush all ready made it clear this week he is not interested in anything they have to say.

17 posted on 12/01/2006 9:42:10 AM PST by MNJohnnie (I do not forgive Senator John McCain for helping destroy everything we built since 1980.)
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To: Historix

Bingo. It is amazing how people who created these problems come back to straighten everyone else out. Same exact thing with the 911 commission.


18 posted on 12/01/2006 9:51:40 AM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: MNJohnnie

The problem is that Bush would has never stood up to McCain and that has created the problem. He appointed Baker which is like bringing his Dad back into the mix.

Will not defend this President on this commission -- Baker was a louzy SoS for his Dad IMHO.


19 posted on 12/01/2006 9:59:31 AM PST by PhiKapMom ( Go Sooners! Rudy 2008)
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To: PhiKapMom

I'm so sick of it all- for me James Baker was the final straw.


20 posted on 12/01/2006 10:16:02 AM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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