I don’t know what to make of this:
Stratfor’s morning letter($) is cloak-and-dagger even by their standards:The Iraq Study Group (ISG), headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, formally released its findings on Wednesday. Outlining a whopping 79 recommendations — including resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and persuading Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria — the report’s recommendations are far-reaching. It essentially suggests resolving every U.S. foreign policy blunder in the region, all the compounded consequences of these mistakes and the centuries-old dispute over the holy land.
This, suffice to say, is underwhelming.
The report was rife with political compromises intended for domestic consumption. It provided a comprehensive list of the failures of the Iraq war — failures that are both profound and well-known. This panel of elder statesmen known for back-channel dealings and solving intractable geopolitical problems is capable of much more than that. What the group set out to do — and what Washington desperately needs it to do — was to devise a cogent, attainable solution and make specific strategic recommendations. We therefore suspect that a separate, classified report — the real report — was placed on the president’s desk some time ago.
Amen, and please, Lord, may the last point be true.
Not sure how much I believe that there’s a second report, but anything’s got to be better than what was delivered for public consumption.
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