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 ...
I agree! This panel with Baker was a horrible idea!
I like the idea of a graceful exit. Into Iran.
James Baker is an arab kiss ass and has been for years.
Whats amazing is how these things ,good or bad ,get blown out of proportion by the media
An Arabist appeaser to the bone. ....and always has been.
Thankfully the Gipper didn't take his stupid-ass advice.
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.
Thanks for posting!
Bam! Pow! Kazowie! JP really pulls no punches on how he feels about this group of weanies.
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.
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).
...or his he?
...."is he," that is.
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".
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.
Bingo. It is amazing how people who created these problems come back to straighten everyone else out. Same exact thing with the 911 commission.
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.
I'm so sick of it all- for me James Baker was the final straw.
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