The Iraq Study Group – Empowered Body or Smoke Screen
I have been seeing more and more about the famed "Iraq Study Group" which was set up earlier this year by Congress to assess the Iraq debacle and try to brainstorm a solution to the mess; and, which is now being at least on the surface, solicited by the Bush administration to give advice on how to extricate the US from what is arguably the US' biggest military failure since Korea. Unlike Korea, however, where the "victor" (North Korea) was isolated and then faded into obscurity for 40 years or so, the Iraq mess has been the major driver of some of the most serious national security problems the US has ever faced (i.e., Islamic terrorism) and has created one of the most serious threats to world-wide stability since the Cold War.
Although the Study Group advocates stepped up efforts for discussions between all Middle East stakeholders to try and see if there is a way to extricate the US from the present mess and spread the responsibility around, tough talk continues to come from from the Bush administration. In particular, recent speeches by Dick Cheney, an invenerate hawk on Iraq and the primary spokesperson for the administration on the war effort now that Rumsfeld is gone, continues to assert that military victory is possible and that US troop strength will stay the same or will possibly even be increased in the region. So I guess the big question is “What is going on? and "What is going to be the most influential voice in Bush's look "with fresh eyes" at the Iraqi debacle”. Seems that the emphasis on the Iraq Study Group by the administration is simply a smoke screen to appease displeased voters and to pretend that alternative measures are being considered. If you listen to Cheney, who one would suspect is much closer to the heart of the decision making process than the congressionally instituted Study Group, it seems clear that America is going to “stay the course” or worse, get us even more deeply involved.
Although the Study Group advocates stepped up efforts for discussions between all Middle East stakeholders to try and see if there is a way to extricate the US from the present mess and spread the responsibility around, tough talk continues to come from from the Bush administration. In particular, recent speeches by Dick Cheney, an invenerate hawk on Iraq and the primary spokesperson for the administration on the war effort now that Rumsfeld is gone, continues to assert that military victory is possible and that US troop strength will stay the same or will possibly even be increased in the region. So I guess the big question is “What is going on? and "What is going to be the most influential voice in Bush's look "with fresh eyes" at the Iraqi debacle”. Seems that the emphasis on the Iraq Study Group by the administration is simply a smoke screen to appease displeased voters and to pretend that alternative measures are being considered. If you listen to Cheney, who one would suspect is much closer to the heart of the decision making process than the congressionally instituted Study Group, it seems clear that America is going to “stay the course” or worse, get us even more deeply involved.
