Iraq Study Group: can you handle the truth?

The Iraq Study Group (ISG) report clearly states what anyone paying attention has known for some time: the situation in Iraq is dire and getting worse. It's a miracle that a bipartisan group could be so blunt. Bush performed his now-familiar routine, thanking the members of a panel for a study he didn't want, for news he doesn't understand, and for advice he won't follow. A few people want to shoot the messengers, calling the ISG members “surrender monkeys” and worse. Unfortunately, these people are the same fools who have supported Bush from the beginning, in other words, his political base. Nothing in Bush's political character indicates that he could ignore his base for any reason, even if he understood and accepted the ISG's conclusions.

Others are saying that we owe the Iraqis a strong effort to right the situation. They favor the definition of clear and achievable goals for the Iraqi government. They think such an effort would prevent any subsequent claim that we lost only because we gave up. This is the same argument that others still make about Vietnam. It's a little late to be defining goals. But the main problem with this approach is that it's twin goals are antagonistic: last chance efforts do not inspire the courage required to prevail.

There is even talk of replacing the Iraqi government. So much for democracy. The advocates of this approach are the most unrealistic: it's not like the Iraqis have Diebold electronic voting machines that make it easy to steal elections in Florida, Ohio, etc. Those purple fingers! So colorful, so dramatic, so nettlesome.