Reiterating The Idiocy: William Perry Pimps The ISG Recommendations
From CNN:
Former Defense Secretary William Perry, a member of the Iraq Study Group, said Saturday that Iraq could turn into a "quagmire" if the Bush administration fails to change strategy.
Perry, who led the Pentagon under President Clinton, delivered the Democratic Party's weekly radio address.
Referring to the Vietnam War, Perry said: "The term 'quagmire' recalls one of the saddest periods in American history, which we do not want to relive. But I believe that is likely to happen if we 'stay the course' in Iraq."
Perry reiterated the recommendations of last week's report from the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton.
"We need to accelerate the training of Iraqi army and police forces," Perry said. "We need to begin to pull out U.S. combat brigades, with the goal of having all except rapid-reaction forces out by first quarter of 2008. ... We need to push friendly regional powers to assist. We need to put pressure on unfriendly regional powers to stop arming militias and fomenting violence. And finally, we need to invigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."
President Bush has been meeting over the last week with current and former military leaders -- as well as advisers from other parts of the government -- to assess possible new strategies for the Iraq war. But he has made it clear he will not map out a new war strategy until his new defense secretary, Robert Gates, has taken over and offered his counsel.
The Iraq Study Group report was critical of just about every aspect of the administration's war policies. Bush welcomed some of its recommendations but dismissed others, particularly the call for withdrawing a substantial number of U.S. troops over the next year.
I think enough people have answered the ISG's utterly retarded report. We have on this site here and here. It is also the focus of our new column at Common Conservative. And we're not the only ones condemning this report. Neither are bloggers, or the usual suspects in the realm of political punditry.
Great Britain has rejected it. So has Israel. The governments in the coalition have also voiced their disgust at the report. In other words, a lot of people are telling James Baker and his nutter commission to stick their advice where the sun doesn't shine. While some of the things recommended are no-brainers, like accelerating the the training of the Iraqi military, police, and security forces, and more emphasis placed ont he government to stand on it's own, there's no way in Hell we can withdraw from Iraq until they're ready. To do so would be a disaster not only for the Iraqis, but the stability of the region would be placed in dire jeopardy. And yes, we understand that there's not a lot of stability there right now, but it's better than what would happen with an abandoned Iraq.
Personally speaking, I think the ISG needs to pipe down. Enough people are sick of hearing them. And a whole host of experts have chimed in to say that the ISG had no clue as to what they were recommending. I'm sorry, but we're on the side of the real experts who know the Middle East like they know the back of their own hands. I trust people like Victor Davis Hanson and Michael Ledeen because they are those experts, and they know what they're talking about. This supposed "blue-ribbon" commission was a complete waste of time. Their decisions were virtually pre-determined before they started wasting time. We knew what they were going to say, and for them to deny it makes the report just as disingenuous.
Publius II
From CNN:
Former Defense Secretary William Perry, a member of the Iraq Study Group, said Saturday that Iraq could turn into a "quagmire" if the Bush administration fails to change strategy.
Perry, who led the Pentagon under President Clinton, delivered the Democratic Party's weekly radio address.
Referring to the Vietnam War, Perry said: "The term 'quagmire' recalls one of the saddest periods in American history, which we do not want to relive. But I believe that is likely to happen if we 'stay the course' in Iraq."
Perry reiterated the recommendations of last week's report from the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton.
"We need to accelerate the training of Iraqi army and police forces," Perry said. "We need to begin to pull out U.S. combat brigades, with the goal of having all except rapid-reaction forces out by first quarter of 2008. ... We need to push friendly regional powers to assist. We need to put pressure on unfriendly regional powers to stop arming militias and fomenting violence. And finally, we need to invigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."
President Bush has been meeting over the last week with current and former military leaders -- as well as advisers from other parts of the government -- to assess possible new strategies for the Iraq war. But he has made it clear he will not map out a new war strategy until his new defense secretary, Robert Gates, has taken over and offered his counsel.
The Iraq Study Group report was critical of just about every aspect of the administration's war policies. Bush welcomed some of its recommendations but dismissed others, particularly the call for withdrawing a substantial number of U.S. troops over the next year.
I think enough people have answered the ISG's utterly retarded report. We have on this site here and here. It is also the focus of our new column at Common Conservative. And we're not the only ones condemning this report. Neither are bloggers, or the usual suspects in the realm of political punditry.
Great Britain has rejected it. So has Israel. The governments in the coalition have also voiced their disgust at the report. In other words, a lot of people are telling James Baker and his nutter commission to stick their advice where the sun doesn't shine. While some of the things recommended are no-brainers, like accelerating the the training of the Iraqi military, police, and security forces, and more emphasis placed ont he government to stand on it's own, there's no way in Hell we can withdraw from Iraq until they're ready. To do so would be a disaster not only for the Iraqis, but the stability of the region would be placed in dire jeopardy. And yes, we understand that there's not a lot of stability there right now, but it's better than what would happen with an abandoned Iraq.
Personally speaking, I think the ISG needs to pipe down. Enough people are sick of hearing them. And a whole host of experts have chimed in to say that the ISG had no clue as to what they were recommending. I'm sorry, but we're on the side of the real experts who know the Middle East like they know the back of their own hands. I trust people like Victor Davis Hanson and Michael Ledeen because they are those experts, and they know what they're talking about. This supposed "blue-ribbon" commission was a complete waste of time. Their decisions were virtually pre-determined before they started wasting time. We knew what they were going to say, and for them to deny it makes the report just as disingenuous.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 9:48 AM
1 Comments:
The Baker Report, as it is not referred to, gives aid and comfort to the enemy and results in the death and injury of our troops. To suggest we sit down with Iran and Syria and talk is ludicrous. They have no understanding of our enemy-remember 9/11? The commission didn't. Rawriter
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