Divisions Within Baker's Iraq Study Group

[bigtree]

Woes for Baker group

Internal dissension, Bush opposition and killing of top Lebanese official dim bid to have Iran, Syria help on Iraq

November 23, 2006
WASHINGTON - Internal strife within the Baker commission, outright opposition from President George W. Bush and Tuesday's assassination of a cabinet member in Lebanon are complicating the prospect of U.S. overtures to Syria and Iran over Iraq, informed sources say.

A source who spoke recently to a leader of the Iraq Study Group said he complained bitterly about internal dissension and partisanship among members of the supposedly bipartisan group, and was worried about reaching consensus on the key issues.

Baker and Hamilton have made it clear they favor a U.S. dialogue with Iraq's neighbors, particularly Iran and Syria, as one way out of the Iraq crisis. This thinking reflects hopes that Iran could use its strong influence on Iraqi Shia and Syria its control over Iraq's most porous border to alleviate insurrection against the U.S. occupation and the fighting between Shia and Sunnis.

Some of the president's advisers, including incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, are said to be supportive of the idea of negotiations with the two countries, though a spokesman for Negroponte said recently the intelligence chief had raised, but not endorsed, the idea in recent meetings overseas. Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to oppose any such move.

But last week the president strongly endorsed his administration's past tough line with both countries. On Iran he said: "Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions ... And so we have made it very clear, our position regards Iran, and it hasn't changed."

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/stories/ny-wobakr234987562nov23,0,5186726.story



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Kagemusha]

1. Oh, Bush's having a my-way-or-the-highway fit. What a shock.

How sad that a whole country has to go through this psychological drama. No wonder monarchies wait for the old man to actually die first.

[babylonsister]

3. Yep, we are all hostages. I pray someone takes his keys

to the kingdom away.

[babylonsister]

2. I wish everyone would stop listening to *'s endorsements.

His grand plan that excludes any kind of diplomacy hasn't, isn't, and won't work. His thinking is detrimental to resolving this clusterfuck he got us into in the first place.

[bigtree]

7. yup we've got to start ignoring his babble

and the babble from his advisors as well

[lapfog_1]

4. Yup, Maliki is on his way out.

He pissed off the neocons and Bush by meeting with the Syrians and Iranians.

Bush is now trying to install Tariq Aziz, or at least that's the rumor. Screw any attempt at democracy there. Screw the Shai'a and screw the Kurds.

Can we say "republican guard"?

[H2O Man]

5. The Iraqi Study Group

is being built upon a very weak foundation, and that is that there is a good answer to the severe crisis that the Cheney-Bush administration has created by invading Iraq. Every "option" is bad, because what this administration did was so fucked up.

[bigtree]

8. the only good proposal I've heard from that group was to get the neighbors more involved

but, as with all of the recommendations, coming from many quarters, the unraveling factor is Bush's skewed focus on saving his own face, above all else.

[riderinthestorm]

11. Uh, I don't believe for one second that Jr. is worried about saving "face"

I believe Jr. felt he actually had power but he has always been kept out of the REAL circle of master rainmen. The truth however has suddenly and enormously come out of the shadows with Baker's arrival and the Iraq "Study" Group (cough, cough - anyone else find that name incongruous verging on hilarious? There isn't any "studying" going on imho, just maneuvering by Baker et al to get the rest of the group to go his way). Jr. is just trying to set up his own "team" in opposition to Baker's group but he will be squashed. Probably pretty publicly too.

It's about money and power brokering and manipulating events for maximum gain and if your toes and your face get stomped, well there's no sympathy for that shit. Probably just cruel laughter at naivety.

[bigtree]

12. well, that's what his talk of achieving 'victory' there is all about, in my opinion

I looks to me that he's keeping our troops there to avoid the inevitable assessment of the entire fiasco as the utter failure it is. As long as he has troops there he can manipulate the debate to claim he wants to continue, to 'win' something or another. When the troops begin to come home, he'll be forced to take account of it all. That's the face I believe he's trying to save in Iraq.

The Pentagon group was an obvious counter to the Baker group, which was endorsed only as a way for republicans to get some cover during the election by claiming they were looking to the group for a way out of Iraq. Bush will use the Pentagon recommendations - which have no actual presentation date set - to counter any proposal from the Baker group that runs counter to his own ambitions. He "trusts the generals on the ground."

I predict a weak call from the group for more regional involvement (a joke) and a rolling over by the group for the Pentagon's recommendations to increase the force there to speed up the training of Iraqis to kill other Iraqis. All in all, there needs to be a unified Democratic response which tracks the will of the American people, as expressed in the election, to start bringing our troops home now. It remains to be seen just how much influence the folks who advocate a partial/phased withdrawal will have on the ultimate resolution that is eventually passed out of committee or the whole House. And, it remains to be seen which, if any, of the 'study group's' recommendations will be adopted by our party as we fashion our opposition.

Bush's veto power makes it imperative that we put him and his White House on the defensive by demanding accountability in committees while we press for a withdrawal.

[riderinthestorm]

14. Great post and we agree on a lot

I see it all a bit differently however.

I think Baker's group will recommend more troops too - give them titles like "trainers and advisors" so more of the Iraq troops can stand up (cough). Meanwhile Poppy, Baker et al are working behind the scenes to get the Iranians, Syrians, Saudis etc. to back the fuck off the civil war shit. That nonsense has gone on long enough and pressure to stop it will intensify as the big boys get together and acknowledge that the Saudi/Syria/Iran(and whoever else is playing with them) group has made their point. This will be phrased as "diplomacy" -diplomacy that is already happening outside of Rice's ostensible authorization and scope of power - but mostly it is their attempt to ensure their monstrous investments into Jr.'s scheme to control Iraqi oil bear fruition instead of draining into the Iraqi sand, lost forever. I would bet that the other ME money men go along with it since it will make them look humanitarian (saving their Muslim brothers and sisters!) while buying them more leverage over BFEE and the other western conglomerates.

I have to wonder if the calls to put back into place the Christian strongman Tariq Aziz are accurate. That would explain a lot. He isn't a Muslim sect, he is a brutal thug fashioned in Saddam's likeness. Regardless, Maliki is out imho - that will be another "change" that the Iraq Study group pulls off.

The Dems just aren't unified or powerful enough, I agree with you there 100%. The only way we get out of Iraq and save our maimed and dying troops any more spilled blood in this cruelly blatant money grab, will lie with the American public rising up.

And how much chance do you think that has of happening? I would like to be hopeful that this is something that can happen since you so correctly pointed out that the election makes it appear to trend that way. I just don't know. We are a sheeplish population at present. I hope there are enough with fire in the belly to demand Bush and Cheney's (and the shadow govt) removal, and to bring home the troops. But even here on DU, where the passions should be strongest, there are calls for moderation and humility and acquiescence to the MSM's spin that we "just can't leave" Iraq.....

[Toots]

9. There is one good option, throw the entire Bush* Administration in jail

The Iraqis would throw down their arms at least long enough for a major celebration..and it would probably bring lasting peace...

[Selatius]

6. I bet Bush Jr. even fucks up Poppy Bush's intervention with Baker/Gates/et al.

The man must have a Napoleon complex at this point.

[OregonBlue]

10. That's why the Lebanese cabinet minister was assassinated. It was

looking too much like Iraq might actually start talking to it's neighbors, whether the U.S. likes it or not. The timing is just too convenient.

[xchrom]

13. lol -- of course there is! a perfect punchline to a bad joke.

the ''iraq study group'' -- is more bizarre to me than i can possibly put in words.

[stopbush]

15. The "Cover Bush's Ass" Faction v The "Find A Workable Solution" Faction.

That sums up this "study group" from the get go.

BTW - I trust James Baker more than I trust Lee "The DINO Who The Rs Call In For A Whitewash" Hamilton,
but only by about a pubic hair.

[DeepModem Mom]

16. Important story -- K&R.

[bigtree]

17. not much air play

[DemReadingDU]

18. morning kick