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December 7, 2006
The Iraq Study Group Report
I have no compelling take on the Iraq Study Group Report. Being that it is now 24 hours old, every commentator the world over has already penned his thoughts. So you'll have to go read them.
I would like to say a bit about the atmospherics though.
Yesterday I found myself driving in the afternoon to a new bookstore about 30 minutes away, because it was the only one nearby with a copy of something I have to read by early next week.
Along the way, I listened to NPR. The airwaves crackled with hints of glee at the report's contents. Withdrawal recommended! The war is not going well! Failure! Defeat! Humiliations galore!*
The show was "Day to Day," which I've never heard before. In one segment, a reporter named Mike Pesca interviewed a gentleman named Ron Slavenas, whose son died in Iraq in 2003 in a helicopter crash. Pesca's questions were ridiculous. Time and time again, the reporter tried to bait the man into some sort of emotional outburst about the death of his son, or perhaps a repudiation of the Bush administration, and time and again, the man failed to engage. Forever looking for a Sheehan moment, Pesca continued for several minutes. It was pathetic. You can listen to the whole thing here. Let me give you some of the flavor. Here's his initial question:
Pesca: Ron, before I ask you your thoughts on the war, I want to ask you this: whether you tell me this is a good war or a bad war, or tough but worth it, or a mistake from the get-go, do you think the conclusions that Americans have about the war, do you think that should affect their answer to the question, "Was your son killed in vain?"At this point, Pesca realizes that Slavenas is a retired military member, and unlikely to take his bait, but he presses on anyway. More:Slavenas: Well . . . it's hard to say. My son was a soldier, and when you're on a mission, when you get deployed, you do what you have to do. So, whether it was in vain or not, I would say yes as a father with personal feelings, but, he was just caught out at a bad time, and he did his duty and he died for his country. It's very saddening, you know we lost a tremendously fine human being, but, we lost about three thousand now, talking about this war, so they went out for a higher cause -- the country calls and you do your duty, that's how I see it, although it's painful . . . he would have lived a long life.
Pesca: Do things like midterm election results, or the impending departure of Donald Rumsfeld, or the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, are those benchmarks that cause you to reassess your thoughts, to check in your own head about Iraq policy?It comes out that Slavenas is an immigrant from Lithuania and has lived under a dictatorship. Pesca valiantly tries to engage nonetheless:Slavenas: Not really . . . you know nothing much will change. I think Iraq has to sort itself out right now. You take away a dictator a la Yugoslavia, or Czarist Russia, and the dictator's gone and all of a sudden the cat is gone and the mice are fighting for their cheese . . .
Pesca: [In 2003,], there was a framed condolence letter from President Bush on display in your living room. Is it still there?The interview ended on that note. Slavenas the departed son, and Slavenas his father both certainly sounded like class acts. The father inadvertently made Pesca's questions seem ridiculous when contrasted with his own responses. The man has lost his son. Why would it really matter to him what the Iraq Study Group says? He'll deal with the death regardless.Slavenas: It's still there, yes.
Pesca: Has your opinion of the decisions that the President's made changed at all in the last three years?
Slavenas: Not really you know, in retrospect, you know things turn a little bit sour, usually it happens after you topple a dictatorship. We are impatient people. Americans are very impatient. You want instant results. Military operations go very smoothly with Americans usually, but in the followup, that's the, the difficulty.
Pesca: And when people hear that your son died, have their reactions changed at all over the last three years?
Slavenas: Well, they feel very regretful, you know, it's a waste, but, again, we have to find strength through it, and I see it in terms of, he was a soldier who raised his right hand to serve his country and, it happens. Sometimes . . . I had two other sons who served and both were in combat. I served twenty years but I've never seen combat because of the luck of the draw. I served in Eisenhower's time, it was peaceful. So if the chance happens of activity in warfare, and you get called, then that's just bad luck, I guess.
The segment ended and Day to Day went on with its breathless coverage of the Iraq Study Group's report.
I arrived at the bookstore and browsed a little before picking up the book I was there to get. In the World History, Middle East section, what before my wondrous eyes should appear, but a miniature paperback copy of . . . the Iraq Study Group Report! How amazing! The report was released today and here it is already available for my purchase for only $10.95!
Coupled with the atmosphere in the press coverage of the report, I found myself wondering if there were merchandising opportunities for the Iraq Study Group. Little action figures perhaps, or a small replica of a Senate hearing -- perhaps a press podium surrounded by tiny lights such that one presses a button and flashbulbs go off as James Baker says "We do not recommend a stay the course solution. In our opinion that approach is no longer viable," all to resounding applause.
Westhawk described this week as containing Two Very Bad Days in Washington.
Thus ends two ignominious days in Washington, D.C. Many inside the Washington bubble will consider the replacement of Mr. Rumsfeld and the arrival of a bi-partisan commission’s study of Iraq to be progress. On the contrary, U.S. interests have been positively harmed by the Gates hearing and the ISG presentation. The U.S. would be better off had these two days never occurred. Observers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the world must have watched and then despaired at the strength and wisdom of the U.S. government.Nope, probably not.The U.S. requires the cooperation of indigenous people and tribes in these troubled areas if it is to achieve its policy interests. After Mr. Gates’s performance and the ISG presentation, does anyone know what the U.S. government is going to do next? The U.S. is looking for allies it can trust. But what about U.S. policy? Is it something an Iraqi or Afghan man should bet his life on?
*gratuitous Princess Bride quote
Posted by Chester at December 7, 2006 10:26 AM
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Comments
I think the thing that has disappointed me most this past year is my slow, grudging realization that people like Mr Slavenas and his son are a vanishing breed in 21st Century America and bottom feeders like Mike Pesca are dominating our culture.
Posted by: ryoushi at December 7, 2006 4:35 PM
Who plays Baker in the soon-to-be released-made-for-TV-movie ?
Is there a deluxe, autographed edition of the report ?
Posted by: El Jefe Maximo at December 7, 2006 4:53 PM
Who plays Baker in the soon-to-be released-made-for-TV-movie ?
Is there a deluxe, autographed edition of the report ?
Posted by: El Jefe Maximo at December 7, 2006 4:54 PM
Westhawk is right. The propensity of all and sundry to spout forth may be part of the our rights but it it sure makes it hard to convince anyone that we are serious about anything.
I certainly understand why the the Iraqi government is looking to pay obeisance to Iran. They see the writing on the wall and want to limit the tribute they will have to pay.
Posted by: davod at December 7, 2006 7:14 PM
My take on the report is they got the *Over the Hill Gang* to waste eight months putting together a useless piece of crap not worth the paper its printed on, and in paperback form of all things. The only thing it lacks are cartoons from *The Farside*.
BTW, Mike Pesca is not a "bottom feeder", he's an MSM Maggot, goes deeper than bottoms.
Posted by: Jimbonc at December 7, 2006 10:02 PM
The only unifying this documnet will bring about are long lines at your local Federal building where you pick up your gas rationing coupons once a month. Oh yes, they are still in storage from the 1973-74 Oil Embargo, that dark Christmas when the president ordered all Christmas lights in homes to not be put up to conserve energy, definately not outside and sparingly inside. That could happen again and worse.
How many rationing coupons will you get? Well, the last time we had rationing the number was based on whether your job related to National Defense, in today's rationing it would be how close to Homeland Defense. All others would get the same amount and not what you think you need. If you wanted to go on vacation you would save your coupons and join a car pool to get to work. And maybe you could buy more from folks who drive less each month.
Brace yourself, it's coming.
Posted by: Jimbonc at December 7, 2006 10:34 PM
Signal to the world: pick a fight with America and when the going gets tough for the US or lasts through a couple of its election cycles, then study groups of partisans, hacks and has-beens will be commissioned to figure out US foreign policy and military strategy, because apparently we don’t know what we’re doing or where we’re going or even how to get to where we want to go when we finally do reach a study group consensus as to what it is the nation really wants based on committee member agendas and collegial compromise.
Screenplay to follow the publication of the ISG, called “What a Girlie SuperPower Wants,” sure to please with plenty of comedic hi-jinks of fickle irresoluteness, gab-fests, and romantic overtures to the enemy.
Posted by: catherine at December 8, 2006 2:58 PM
Important Announcement
Announcing an International Competition open to, on an individual or collective/ committee basis: former Statesmen, think-tanks, mainstream Media, Internet pundits, Reuters stringers, Graduate schools, Retired Generals, life-long Federal employee Democrats, State Arabists, Imams, Sheiks, Chavez, the Carter Center, Buchanan, Houston realists, OPEC and oil corporations, recording artists, Rosie O’Donnell, radical pink Christians, UN, EU, AI, CAIR and Guantanamo detainees
Ineligible to participate: Zionists, the Bush twins, Dr. Rice and elected policymakers
To resolve the American question of the early 21st C: How to Save a Superpower’s Nuts
Discuss: Given that the USA may still, as yet, be burdened with alpha nation standing in an increasingly globalized, globularized, transnationalized, linked, overlapping, ‘Progressing’ and regressing, shrilly feminized and brutally coarsened, and lesbianizing and fundamentalizing world in which genteel men no longer are able to differentiate between true and false offense, what should be the object of American power projection today and for the next several decades to come?
Focus: In 25,000 words or less, please expound and expand upon whether, how to, and to what ends America should conduct the GWoT, OIF and Afghanistan post-wars, ME/SW Asia regional diplomacy, and interrogation of “helpless” terrorist suspects, while simultaneously providing oversight of nuclear proliferation, global weather and gay Congressional Reps’ email.
Include: personal/ business agendas, indices of easily manipulated numbers, contradictory opinions, facile logic, plagiarized maps, suggested World Caliphate logo, a smiling photo of Cynthia McKinney or Lucy Lawless, and extensive citations from the Bible, Qoran and Stern Report.
Winner: the best entry will be adopted as official default policy of the US
Deadline: ASAP
Posted by: Dr. K at December 9, 2006 7:02 PM