This “Iraq Study Group” (ISG) has the audacity to tell the President “you should take our recommendations in whole”… I don’t recall voting for these people. Who in the f&#K designated these hacks as having higher authority than the President to set the course of foreign policy for our country?
Sometimes it’s best to communicate your viewpoint on seemingly complex situations by using analogy and metaphors. Take a look at one of the recommendations from the ISG:
United States should engage directly with Iran and Syria in order to try to obtain their commitment to constructive policies toward Iraq and other regional issues. In engaging Syria and Iran, the United States should consider incentives, as well as disincentives, in seeking constructive results.
When I read this paragraph, it became clear to me: The ISG and their understanding of the situation in the Middle East is sophomoric at best. It’s as if a Parent Teacher Association for a white suburban elementary school got together to provide recommendations to a black inner city school on ways to address the seething drugs and violence. By analogy, their recommendations are based on a single white woman reading Benjamin Spock’s book on raising children and watching George Clooney in the movie Syriana.
Iran and Syria are like a pair of juvenile delinquents at an elementary school that shake-down fellow students and secretly deal drugs. Their interests are in perpetuating this secret inner world of commerce and fun. As much as you explain to them about prosperity from hard work, these thugs don’t care about ACT scores and education. Can you imagine telling a school principal to manage inner city school hoodlums by “obtaining their commitment to constructive policies…”
The public display of this ingenuousness by “leaders” in the US is very chilling.
Note: No need to further discredit this effort with comments about James Baker and his conflicts of interest with the Saudis.