More Thoughts on the ISG

Now that I have had some time to think about the ISG report (and have my mind corrupted with the views at large) I thought I would say just a couple of more things about it.

First of all, I've noticed that no one liked it. Left, right, and center, the blogosphere has been truly unkind to the findings of the report.

Kvatch says they layed an egg. Nothing in the report that we didn't already know.

A similar comment is made by Crazy Politico, a righty. He argues that, "The Baker Hamilton Iraq Study (contained), well, nothing that hasn't been suggested by others already." When I asked if he had any better ideas, he responded with this gem...

PT, small thermonuclear weapons come to mind, but the world is so touch about those. The thing is, we've shown it only takes kilotons to get folks attention.

So although no one else has any better ideas what to do, everyone seems ready to bury the members of the ISG report. Relax everyone, those guys are so old, they will all be underground soon enough.

But all kidding aside, what occurs to me is that this report, if nothing else, highlights the actual problems that exist and puts to rest any lingering doubts as to the desperation of the situation in Iraq. The failed policy and the failure of the overall plan to invade are both clear as day to anyone who actually bothers to read it.

If nothing else, those who were against the invation in the first place and who spend a lot of time criticising the Administration for their decision and the poor management that followed (like Reality-based Educator) should at least acknowledge that this reports verifies everything we have been thinking and saying since the beginning.

Perhaps the whole thing is sort of a parody, or at least the recommendations are. The plan itself is completely unworkable. It calls for Iran, Syria, and Israel to all get on board, make sacrifices, and try to help. It also expects that president Bush is going to listen, make changes, and actually hire professionals to do important jobs instead of his political cronies to whom he owes favors. None of this is going to happen in the real world, and Baker et. al. are intelligent enought to know this.

Therefore, what they are saying in a very round about way is this: "we have already screwed the pooch folks, and there isn't a damn thing we can do to fix it now. We might as well start making moves to exit, because at least then we could fight some battles that we have a chance of winning."

People think that this report was a joke, but that is only half true. The report itself, the first half, is deadly serious. But perhaps the recommendations are actully intentionally a joke. It is kind of like telling a little boy who is too short to ride on the roller coaster, "sure, you can ride it, just grow a foot in the next five minutes and you are in there!"

Get it?