From that article that you posted*, this pretty much sums it up: “What the Baker group appears to have done is try to change the direction of the political momentum on Iraq,” said Stephen P. Cohen, a scholar at the Israel Policy Forum. “They have made clear that there isn’t a scenario for a democratic Iraq, at least for a very long time. They have called into question the logic of a lengthy American presence. And once you’ve done that, what is the case for Americans dying in order to have this end slowly?”
then, there's this: the president has, if anything, seemed to harden his position again. In Hanoi, Vietnam, nearly two weeks ago, he suggested that he would regard the recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton group as no more than a voice among many. In Riga, Latvia, two days ago he all but pounded the lectern as he declared, “There’s one thing I’m not going to do: I’m not going to pull the troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete.” Oh, well!
I happened to catch a Rice interview on the news this evening. I think she said we've turned a corner, and she dismissed the idea that the planned tri-lateral conference cancellation was an insult to Malaki. I got the impression she thinks Iraq is doing fine, though most would disagree.
*Prolife, see johnff's post. |
