So Jim Baker's Iraq Study Group, an attempted grand exercise in realpolitik, has issued its much-anticipated final report.
The study, the product of numerous meetings and study sessions since March of this year, noted that "if the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences could be severe. A slide toward chaos could trigger the collapse of Iraq's government in a humanitarian catastrophe."The Baker-Hamilton group issued a series of ideas, most of which already have emerged in public debate, aimed at preventing that outcome. The report calls for the launch of an immediate diplomatic offensive to build "an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region."
The report also calls for the United States to attempt to directly engage Iran and Syria in diplomatic talks.
Read the full report here. There's lots of dubious commentary at The Corner and elsewhere. President Bush's official response is here. Capitol Hill gasbags will undoubtedly issue their pronouncements throughout the day.
The president is still the decider: if he wants to cut and run, then this will help provide cover. If he wants to stand and fight, then he will make whatever use of the report he can.
One thing, however, is clear: a strategy based on getting help from Iran and Syria, with whom we are effectively at war, will end nowhere but on the ash heap of history. That very inconvenient, but barely acknowledged, fact makes finessing the Iraq situation fundamentally difficult. If the ISG really believes differently, that's just highly disturbing.
Posted by Alan at December 6, 2006 12:30 PM