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Charen: These are Realists?
Townhall.com ^ | 12-8-06 | Mona Charen

Posted on 12/08/2006 4:02:09 PM PST by cgk

These are realists?


By Mona Charen
Friday, December 8, 2006

Recommendation 16 of the Iraq Study Group's report calls upon Syria to agree to a peace deal with Israel in return for the Golan Heights. It further suggests that Syria be persuaded to end its interference in Lebanon, cease aiding Hezbollah, convince Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, and intervene to obtain the release of two captured Israeli soldiers.

Elsewhere the report declares that "Iran should stem the flow of arms and training to Iraq, respect Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and use its influence over Iraqi Shia groups to encourage national reconciliation." The authors of this report are supposed to be the foreign policy realists? These goals make President Bush's ambition to germinate a democracy in Arab soil look positively minimalist by comparison.

Instead of a sober new look at our options in Iraq, this report consists of platitudinous, utterly naive wishful thinking. No wonder it is being so rapturously received by the media. At a press conference the morning after the report was released, a Los Angeles Times reporter asked the president whether he didn't really agree that the ISG report was much more important than any other reports (from the State Department and the Pentagon) the president was expecting to receive.

"The United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict and regional instability." A reliable old saw, but is it true? Since 1945, the Middle East has experienced 40 wars, including civil wars and wars of attrition. Of these, 10 have involved Israel (including the first and second intifadas). The remainder have included border wars between Egypt and Libya, two civil wars in Lebanon, a war between Jordan and the PLO, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Iran/Iraq War, several civil wars in Yemen, and the Dhofar rebellion in Oman. It is chasing a shadow to imagine that "settling" the Arab/Israeli dispute will pacify the region.

But the group chose a particularly inapposite moment to seek a solution to the Israeli/Arab dispute. In the first place, its relevance to the Iraqi conflict is remote at best. Shiites and Sunnis are not going to stop killing each other because the borders of the West Bank are redrawn. But further, the Assad family in Syria has already rejected a bona fide offer of the Golan Heights. The sticking point in 2000? Syria declined to make peace with Israel. If Syria wouldn't accept a deal that included getting back the Golan in 2000, why should she agree now?

No, in order to obtain Syria's help (if it is purchasable at all), we would have to agree to cease investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, drop our objections to Syrian influence in Lebanon, and agree that Hezbollah deserves a free hand in the south of that country.

What about Iran? The ISG seems to imply that our relations with Iran and Syria have been sour due to insufficient diplomatic effort -- thus the "new diplomatic offensive." That's wrong. Our relations are poor because our interests are diametrically opposed.

Former Secretary of State and ISG co-chair James Baker reminds us that the Iranians were helpful when we toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. Yes, to a point. But that wasn't because we asked nicely. The Taliban (Sunnis) had made themselves obnoxious to the Iranians (Shiites), including by kidnapping and killing a number of Iranians. Iran was glad to see them toppled, but that didn't stop Iran from harassing our troops in Afghanistan.

We are told that instability in Iraq is not in Iran's interest either and that therefore we can sit down and reason together. But judging by Iran's behavior -- and it's usually more reliable to read a nation's motives by its actions than by its declarations -- instability is just great. The Iranians are arming and equipping some of the most violent factions inside Iraq. They seem to think a Shiite Iraq subservient to Tehran would be an ideal outcome, particularly since the road to this nirvana has included loss of American life, limb and prestige.

If this document were not so unrealistic it would amount to suing for terms and is thus a net drain on our national conversation about the "way forward" in Iraq.

Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist, political analyst and author of Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help .


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; iraqstudygroup; iraqsurveygroup; isg; monacharen

1 posted on 12/08/2006 4:02:12 PM PST by cgk
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To: bboop; Bismark; Black Agnes; blitzgig; Cacique; Capitalism2003; Davis; Diogenez; DoctorMichael; ...

Charen ping!

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Mona Charen ping list...

2 posted on 12/08/2006 4:03:48 PM PST by cgk (I don't see myself as a conservative. I see myself as a religious, right-wing, wacko extremist.)
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To: All

My grandma said you can wish into one hand and poop in the other and see which one fills up first.


3 posted on 12/08/2006 4:12:45 PM PST by bennowens
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To: cgk

Why did mean old Mona have to pour the cold water of reality on the nice, warm cosy dream document of the ISG?


4 posted on 12/08/2006 4:14:53 PM PST by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: cgk
If this document were not so unrealistic it would amount to suing for terms and is thus a net drain on our national conversation about the "way forward" in Iraq.

It is much worst than that. This report is a de facto aiding and abetting of the enemy.
5 posted on 12/08/2006 4:24:55 PM PST by parisa
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To: cgk
Recommendation 16 of the Iraq Study Group's report calls upon Syria to agree to a peace deal with Israel in return for the Golan Heights. It further suggests that Syria be persuaded to end its interference in Lebanon, cease aiding Hezbollah, convince Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, and intervene to obtain the release of two captured Israeli soldiers.

We should send Jimmy Carter to negotiate this deal. With any luck they'll hold him hostage until we achieve victory.

6 posted on 12/08/2006 4:26:55 PM PST by AZLiberty (Wanting to die for your beliefs? Good, because we're willing to kill for ours.)
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To: cgk

Hey, Mona always hits the target.


7 posted on 12/08/2006 4:44:16 PM PST by SoCalPol (We Need A Border Fence Now)
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To: cgk
Recommendation 16...

What was the Recommendation # that dealt with eliminating international terrorist/thug Nasrallah?

Civilization for Dummies 1.0

8 posted on 12/08/2006 5:21:01 PM PST by PGalt
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To: cgk
Instead of a sober new look at our options in Iraq, this report consists of platitudinous, utterly naive wishful thinking. No wonder it is being so rapturously received by the media.

Yep.

9 posted on 12/08/2006 5:28:03 PM PST by EternalVigilance (It's up to you to save the republic.)
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To: cgk

And tell me again what family Baker is a friend of


10 posted on 12/08/2006 6:16:08 PM PST by uncbob (m first)
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To: cgk
The Iranians are arming and equipping some of the most violent factions inside Iraq.

I wonder how Baker missed this fact when he came up with (as Mark Steyn so aptly called it) his "chat and run" blueprint.

11 posted on 12/08/2006 6:24:56 PM PST by Right_in_Virginia
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To: cgk

It's gotten so that my only forlorn hope of anything good happening over there is an Israeli military coup d'etat.
Where are the leaders, the men of this generation? The men who will do what needs to be done.
There isn't a chance in hell that the US will strike Iran or Syria. That leaves Israel, which is on a path to extinction, this time with its own leaders herding them to the showers.


12 posted on 12/08/2006 6:30:30 PM PST by Graymatter ((before your time))
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To: cgk; bboop; Bismark; Black Agnes; blitzgig; Cacique; Capitalism2003; Davis; Diogenez; ...

Why, WHY did Ed Meese sign on to this report? All the other "Republicans" I can understand. Anyone who can shed any light on this -- PLEASE DO!!


13 posted on 12/08/2006 6:41:27 PM PST by guitarist
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To: cgk

And in another section the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus will form the negotiating team.


14 posted on 12/08/2006 7:01:03 PM PST by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: guitarist
In regard to Ed Meese, I would guess that he would figure 1) the outcome would have been worse if he hadn't participated and 2) the report does buy time - tending to ameliorate to a degree the critical mass that had been building of opposition to the war.

He also would know that the report would be followed by reports from the Pentagon and State Departments; and that the study group report was certainly not the last word - contrary to what the MSM wants to believe.
15 posted on 12/08/2006 8:41:44 PM PST by mtntop3
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To: cgk

Weren't these the same people who advised 41 to stop short of actually removing Sadaam in the first Gulf War?


16 posted on 12/09/2006 6:53:58 AM PST by jmcenanly (Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. -- Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: mtntop3

Thanks for the attempt. Still a bit of a disappointment. I think it is possible to make a conservative case that the war in Iraq was a mistake. You don't even have to go whacko, as Pat Buchanan has tended to do. But to sign on to this mush in the Iraq Surrender Group report--as Rush calls it--as Meese has done, is too bad...


17 posted on 12/09/2006 9:29:07 PM PST by guitarist
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