The Iraq Study Group: let's see it for what it is--

[elehhhhna]

The last thing that Jim Baker and his business associates at the Carlyle Group want is a public that seriously engaged with major foreign policy issues. And certainly not a public that takes regular notice that both our political and military leaders are willing to bald-faced lie about national-security issues. They certainly don't want ordinary citizens to start focusing on boondoggles like Star Wars/Missile Defense/Whatever Propaganda Name They Call It Now.
...
The guardians of the foreign policy status quo are counting on the panel to extricate the US from Iraq. More broadly, they are counting on it to avoid inquiring into the origins of our predicament. So don't think for a moment that the ISG will assess the implications of America's growing addiction to foreign oil. Don't expect it to question the wisdom of President Bush's doctrine of preventive war or the feasibility of his Freedom Agenda, which promises to implant democracy across the Islamic world.

Far be it from the group to ask whether an open-ended "global war on terror" makes sense as a response to 9/11 or to ponder the flagrant manipulation and misuse of intelligence in the months leading up to the Iraq war. The ISG won't assess the egregious flaws in US military planning for the Iraq invasion or the manifest deficiencies in American generalship since the war began. On the role that Congress has played in enabling presidential fecklessness, you can be certain that Baker and Hamilton will remain silent.

http://journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog/entries/2006/11/28/the-iraq-study-group-lets-see-it-for-what-it-is/4247

[Dhalgren]

1. In my opinion, the ISG has one primary mission: to repackage

the Iraq occupation in a way to appease the US public. That is why they are having such a tough time of it. They have to set up a framework so that the extended occupation will be palatable to the the sleepy US public. The public is sleepy because they have nearly been completely awaken to the reality of our nation's situation. The public wants to go back to sleep; this Iraq-cat-crying-on-the-trash-can is really beginning to piss them off. So Baker, et al, is trying to come up with a plan that will allow the US public to get back to sleep where it belongs. This is primarily a PR/ad campaign problem and they have the best folks in the world working on it. The problem is that Junior has fucked it up so badly that the "fix" is hard to come up with and be "elegant" at the same time...

[Philosoraptor]

2. And what will the final fee be for this study group?

As much as they spent investigating Clinton? you are right, this is only cheap PR

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. The number of Iraqis in the Group is an indicator of it's relevance.

The Iraqis and the regional countries have taken over from the Americans in deciding what's going to happen in Iraq.