Terrye,

I agree… I am hoping that Baker will have some good ideas. I really hope that he’s not hanging his hat on being buddies with Syria and Iran.

JK,
Hmm, nice to see the person above has got it all figured out. Meanwhile, he seems to forget Bush is still Commander in Chief. I doubt Bush has. (I am one of those who has many criticism of Bush, but when I read blanket statements like the above I am repelled.)

I’m sorry, but what the heck are you talking about? Of course Bush is the CiC, however, in this nation the CiC has to rely on the populace and the Congress in order to do much of anything. Right now, the populace isn’t too friendly (at least according to the recent polls and the recent elections). Congress… well I think we all know where Congress is at this point, Bush will be lucky if he gets through the next two years without fighting impeachment the whole time (let’s hope that the Dems aren’t going that direction).

However, if the Barker report recommends working with Iran and Syria and since Blair has already said thats what should happen (and he’s really the last major member of the Coalition of the Willing), the President will be in a difficult position to say no. More importantly, if he decides to ignore the recommendations of Blair and Baker, the Republican party could find itself at the butt end of some very nasty campaign ads come ’08, if the War is still on the boil.

IN America, the Commander in Chief has lots of Power… and he usually ahs lots of controls around his ability to make use of that Power. In the current political environment, I think Bush will not be nearly as functional.