Old Diplomats, Old Thoughts

It appears someone is leaking details of the Iraq report being undertaken by James Baker and a host of others.

WASHINGTON — A commission formed to assess the Iraq war and recommend a new course has ruled out the prospect of victory for America, according to draft policy options shared with The New York Sun by commission officials.

Currently, the 10-member commission — headed by a secretary of state for President George H.W. Bush, James Baker — is considering two option papers, "Stability First" and "Redeploy and Contain," both of which rule out any prospect of making Iraq a stable democracy in the near term.

More telling, however, is the ruling out of two options last month. One advocated minor fixes to the current war plan but kept intact the long-term vision of democracy in Iraq with regular elections. The second proposed that coalition forces focus their attacks only on Al Qaeda and not the wider insurgency.

Instead, the commission is headed toward presenting President Bush with two clear policy choices that contradict his rhetoric of establishing democracy in Iraq. The more palatable of the two choices for the White House, "Stability First," argues that the military should focus on stabilizing Baghdad while the American Embassy should work toward political accommodation with insurgents. The goal of nurturing a democracy in Iraq is dropped.

There's more at link above. Judging only from what is being leaked, this sounds like just more of the same thing that's been taking place in the Middle East for 50 years. Get a strong man in place and let him rule, so long as he is your strong man, of course.

In one form or another, that's Saudi Arabia, Eqypt and any number of other Arab states that breed Islamo fascism among their populations because the government is not truly responsive to their needs.

I'm no Middle East expert, but this doesn't appear to be progress to me, just more of the same.

Comments

[M.A.]

I thought conservatives were supposed to understand that there are certain truths that remain true forever. Baker's people seem to understand this, at least. And certainly the fact that you cannot magically turn a country into a stable democracy by invading it and occupying it forever (especially when the people are at war with each other and want us out) is pretty much an eternal verity.

So, to review: everybody who has actual experience with foreign policy agrees that we either need to work for stability and/or redeployment. In other words, the Democrats were right again.

[bud]

James Baker? Look at all that he has accomplished(!) in the past, then tell me that we should pay any attention to what he comes up with?

If you think that Henry Kissinger was the ne plus ultra of US foreign policy, then you're gonna love Baker.

[ajacksonian]

So, once you start getting out the magic markers and drawing lines... how soon is it before the local tribes step in to 'get their fair share'? Then they will start to *not* abiding by other National lines because of this great idea that they should be erased, too! I mean here you have Baker and other poo-bah's starting it, so why not just get down to tribal brass tacks and start getting rid of Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, KSA... then Pakitan, Afghanistan, the other 'stans, Georgia, parts of India... well! That is such a *wonderful* idea to think you can actually 'control' dividing up a Nation.

Anyone take a look at a region known as the 'Balkans'? Has much the same problem. Ever hear of 'Balkanization'? Serbia? Bosnia? Montenagro? Kosovo? FYROM? And how even *those* have internal divisions threating them? Just up the population a bit, flatten out the terrain, hand out 5 times as many automatic weapons, increase tribal loyalty, throw in disputes going back at *least* 1200 years betwee tribes and that is what happens to the Middle East from the Sinai all the way to India and China and southern Russia.

Such fine and otherworldly folks, these aged diplomats. Time they wrote their memoirs and went on speaking tours and had fine brandy by the fireside with their grandchildren. For that old Nostrum will get us in a hell of a lot *worse* mess than we are in now.