Tammy Bruce: ISG Report Is Out and Even Worse Than We Imagined

ISG Report Is Out and Even Worse Than We Imagined

Here is the Executive Summary of the ISG. The full 160 page report is here. I have analysis for you from two excellent sources. First, the gentlemen at Powerline have analysis which says it all. Here's a snippet:

Thus, the ISG report lives up to its advanced billing. The best the "wise men" can come up with is to have our worst enemies try to help us stabilize Iraq. And, apparently, the primary inducement will be to pressure Israel into creating a Palestinian state (as if Iran really cares about that). It's difficult to say which is more pronounced, the craven nature of this recommendation or its lack of realism...I'm willing to reserve final judgment until I've read the the whole thing. But right now, this report looks like the worst of all possible worlds -- give up in Iraq over the course of one year and make concessions to Iran and Syria on top of that. I think I'd prefer an old-fashioned surrender.

William Kristol and Robert Kagan also make things clear with their piece at Frontpagemag.com:

A Perfect Failure

Although its recommendations will have no effect on American policy going forward, they have already had a very damaging effect throughout the world, and especially in the Middle East and in Iraq. For the Iraq Study Group, aided by supportive American media, has successfully conveyed the impression to everyone at home and abroad that the United States is about to withdraw from Iraq. This has weakened American allies and strengthened American enemies. It has exacerbated the problems in Iraq, as all the various factions in that country begin to prepare for the "inevitable" American retreat. Now it will require enormous efforts by the president and his advisers to dispel the disastrous impression that the Baker commission has quite deliberately created and will continue to foster in the weeks ahead. At home and abroad, people have been led to believe that Jim Baker and not the president was going to call the shots in Iraq from now on.

Happily, that is not the case...

Yes, as they say, please read the whole thing.

UPDATE:

The Heritage Foundation now has a more specific, point by point, assessment of the report titled, The Iraq Study Group Report: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Posted by Tammy · December 6, 2006 09:56 AM · Permalink
War on Radical Islam

Comments

Don't blame me. I voted on the Republican side of the ledger.

America wanted the likes of Nancy Pelosi as the majority leader, and commitee leaders like Rangel? Bush's response was Gates?

America just lost, big time. The dems just want us to capitulate. Turn the other cheek and forget the regimes of terror in Iran and Syria. Forget that Syria just murdered the last remaining Christian in the Lebanese Parliament. Forget al Sadr, Ahmadinejad, Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda.

Today for the first time a United States representative was sworn in without the bible. What, you think that is a right-wing conservative negativism? No, I'm just old fashioned enough to think that the principles of our founding fathers are being completely violated by the democratic party.

Posted by: CinderellaMan at December 6, 2006 02:59 PM

Do the democrats know that missing suitcase nukes may have been purchased by al Qaeda from Chechen rebels, and have already been forward-deployed to the United States for what has been termed "the American Hiroshima"? That the recent radiological poisoning blamed on Putin may be related?
Read this:

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/paul-williams120606.htm

Posted by: CinderellaMan at December 6, 2006 03:52 PM

Negotiate with terrorists?

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/06/the_danger_of_engaging_with_the_enemy/

What is the one major difference between how Ronald Reagan dealt the enemy ( in bringing conclusion to the Cold War )? HE BARGAINED FROM A POSITION OF SUPERIOR STRENGTH, all the while knowing that his was the voice of right and reason. "If your heart is pure you have the strength of ten". One could say the same thing for JFK in dealing with the Bay of Pigs incident.

How pure are the hearts of the democratic leadership? Not very I say. Two days ago Bill O'Reilly stated that Hillary Clinton was nothing more than "a knee-jerk liberal". In fact, there is some truth to that moniker, but I say she is devoutly socialist in nature and tendencies. She interned for an avowed communist while at Yale. Her health care reform is clearly socialist; I'm all for it, but just want to pay only my fair share.

I'm tired and rambling tonight, but outraged enough by recent events that I had to post. Bottom line, the ISG presumes too much, and the democratic party could at least wait until they take office to take over the country. I still think the incredulity of it all will be their downfall. Just hope it isn't America's.

Posted by: CinderellaMan at December 6, 2006 04:27 PM

I believe Bush should stay the course in Iraq and let the Demos take the responsiblity for a cut and run policy. In Hillary wins in 08 let her make the decision to abandon Iraq to the terrorists and let the Democratic Party live with the consequences of defeat. That's what all the urgency is about, the Democrats want to pressure Bush into retreating in Iraq so they won't have to be responsible for pulling our troops out of Iraq in 08 and be held accountable for a cut and run policy. Bush should keep our troops in Iraq and dare the Democratics to pull them out and take responsibility for that decision.

Posted by: SteveOk at December 6, 2006 06:17 PM

I caught Brit Hume's interview with James Baker and Lee Hamilton tonight. Baker is a lunatic. He's all agog about "flipping" Syria. We'll talk to them and Hamas will chill out about Israel and Syria will be Israel's good friend in the region. Voila! Baker is the one who's flipped. He admits it's futile to talk with Iran but we should do it anyway. ??? I'm still not sure what the recommendation is about our troops. Won't any kind of phased withdrawal be putting the fewer remaining troops in more danger? Wasn’t one of the raps against Bush that Afghanistan went sour because we took troops out? Embed our people within Iraqi forces? That's going to improve things? The greatest military power the world has ever known can’t deal with street fighting in one city? I think sane Americans are an endangered species.

Posted by: pat_s at December 6, 2006 06:33 PM

I’d say the “Iraq Study Group” should have studied harder. A lot harder.

Posted by: Frost at December 6, 2006 09:33 PM

I was shocked and appalled by the President's groveling to the Congress during his press conference yesterday. To look to that sad, failed group for leadership in the Middle East is unforgivable. He knows they are incapable of doing anything but passing this problem on to our children. It is even more shocking that he would accept the ideas of James Baker, the man who set and executed the policies that built the stage for September 11th and the terror unleashed upon the world since.

Prior to this, I chalked this up to him being tired; that after a rest, all the stupid decisions like nominating Harriet Myers, like pushing for amnesty for illegal aliens, would stop being foisted upon the American public. I am now forced to conclude that after September 11th he either simply stumbled into the right approach for dealing with the radical Islamists (our true enemy --- not "terrorists" or "evil-doers") or outsourced his thinking to true warriors who knew the right way to fight back and win.

I am deeply troubled that other politicians will see his capitulation and retreat as the right way to conduct affairs, and that brave men and women will not be able to step forward to lead and save this country.

He is one step away (adoption of the study groups recommendations) from a legacy of retreat and betrayal --- betrayal of American values and courage, and betrayal of the feckless Iraqis who believed in those values.

Posted by: Steve in Ohio at December 6, 2006 11:37 PM

As expected, this sham of a report encourages steps that will not deter terrorism. In fact, if followed, it will encourage them to strike again and harder. Comments coming out of the Middle East shows they view it as a win for them against the great America. Bush must ignore this ridiculous report and grow his spine back to defeat the terrorists.

Right in a Left World: Iraq Group Report; Road to Peace or Another Sell Out?

Posted by: Lew Waters at December 6, 2006 11:44 PM

The ISG lays open the basic, hostile anti-semitism that is pervasive amoung Country Club Republicans and elitist academic Democrats. With folks like these around, Israel doesn't need enemies. It is toast.

Posted by: St. Thor at December 7, 2006 08:22 AM

I know Rick Santorum is not one of Tammy’s favorite Senators but he was one of the two votes against Gates. He made some strong remarks in his farewell speech about Iran. I can’t find any links to audio or video. Maybe something will show up later. I heard snippets of the speech. Here is a recap of some significant points he made about Iran and the war against Islamofascism (the term he uses in his speech).

Iraq and Afghanistan are battlefields in a complex, broader war that includes every continent except Antarctica. It is at our doorstep. Iran declared war on America in 1979. They have been at war with us continuously since then. It is Iran and it’s client state Syria that serves as the principal instigator and fomenter of the conflict in Iraq. The problem of radical Islam is growing, not since 2003, since the radicals took control of Iran in 1979. He slams the media, the ISG, self-serving politicians, and the State Department for advising the President that confrontation with Iran is not an option.

Posted by: pat_s at December 7, 2006 06:47 PM

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