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The Iraq Study Group & Conventional Wisdom
I bought into the conventional wisdom that the Iraq Study Group report would provide the necessary political cover for President Bush to make some badly needed course corrections.
I was wrong.
The new CW is that harrumphing over the report by conservative hawks will provide the necessary cover for The Decider to reject much of the report.
More here.
7 Responses to “The Iraq Study Group & Conventional Wisdom”
I don’t think the ISG report is perfect by any means. The idea of embedding more of our trainers with the Iraqis without adequate backup sounds like an utter recipe for disaster, for instance. But I’m not seeing a realistic alternative from the Neocons either. Or am I missing something?
This double down the troops idea from McCain and others is just political theatre (a phrase I read somewhere yesterday and agree with completely) since the troops just aren’t there. More and more it sounds like the powers that be are possibly coming to grips with how bad the situation is, but still have no clue whatsoever how to fix it. This is a problem that’s going to be with us for years, meanwhile lives are being lost daily.
Actually, it has more to do with McCain’s ’08 campaign than George W. Bush. The ISG is recommending disengagement from Iraq. McCain wants more troops.
McCain continues to pander to the conservative wing of the Republican party. He’s been moving consistently to the right for the last 6 months. It may help him in the primary, but with only 9% of Americans believing the Iraq war will end in victory, it won’t help him win the general. Will he triangulate and moderate his position on the war to win?
I meant to add that I wish someone would call him on the fact that we don’t have the troops available, and that the real problem seems to be our faulty training program—-shortage of supplies, translators, lack of dedication among the recruits, etc.
Anyone mentioning the little part in the ISG Report that talks about the opening up of Iraq’s Oil Market to Foreign Investment?
I hadn’t noticed thatt Dale. Interesting. Not quite sure how to read that, but its probably a bad idea. Seems like you could interpret it many bad ways, and few good ones. Either we have large western companies buy up the oil, fueling the imperialism propoganda, or we have ME, state controlled oil companies buy it up and begin the slow move towards regional conflict. The only good I think that could come of it is if maybe China buys up all the oil, and then has an interest in stabalizing the region, however even then in the long run it is not a good thing for a stable, self-funding Iraqi government.
Also, any comments on the Iraqi take on the ISG? What I’ve heard is that Kurds and Shia don’t like it at all, as it proposes giving more central control to the government, and therefore the Sunni a larger say in the affairs of the country.