Preliminary impressions

The Iraq Study Group released their report. My own cursory review indicates this is not a serious document.

The ISG presupposes that Iran and Syria have an interest in a stable Iraq - a contention which I believe is demonstrably false. The ISG believes that the United States should engage Iran and Syria in diplomacy - how exactly is not clear - in order to elicit cooperation.

There being no other obvious leverage at its disposal, it is not clear how the United States should convince Iran and Syria to cooperate.

I've floated the crazy idea that perhaps the ISG's careful choice of words does not rule out the use of force. If the ISG means what it says, the credible threat of military force can be the only means of successfully compelling Iranian and Syrian cooperation. In order for diplomacy to be successful the threat of military force must be credible. Credibility in this instance means that Iranian and Syrian non-cooperation must have a credible consequence.

MSM reaction, meanwhile has been typically hysterical. I have so little respect for MSM coverage at times and this is certainly one of those times. Analysis and reportage appears triumphalist and seems to follow a conventional wisdom that George W. Bush is a failed president with a failed policy and a war that is lost.

It sickens me to observe the craven idiocy of MSM that presumes to judge with detached indifference as an objective arbiter of American military success or failure. Focused solely on the political damage that validated criticism can bring, it doesn't bother to concern itself with prescription. It is unconcerned with Victory and indeed mocks the very suggestion.

An objective assessment of the invasion of Iraq would note the failure of the elected Iraqi government to exercise control, widespread sectarian violence and the continued failure to establish a self-governing Iraqi state. It would also note a remarkable string of successes:

1. Saddam Hussein deposed and on trial. Sentenced to death.
2. Saddam’s two sons Uday and Qusay killed.
3. Kurds in the north; Shia in the south free from Sunni/Baathist oppression
4. Iraqis vote for a new constitution and representative government.
5. All WMD programs (whether developed or not) terminated with certainty.
6. Advanced Libyan nuclear weapons program surrendered and terminated.
7. Existence of a black market in nuclear weapons and missile technology headed by A.Q. Khan of Pakistan exposed and terminated.
8. World-wide economic sanctions against Iraq lifted
9. UN Oil-for-Food Program exposed and terminated
10. The crucible of combat has honed US Armed Forces into a deadly, effective fighting force, quickly adapting – not according to hypothetical circumstances in peace – but to reality in war.
11. The motivating ideology of the enemy - radical Islam - is more widely known and better understood.
12. Combat hardened, well equipped US Armed Forces bestride Iran and Syria providing a potent and visible military threat to those countries.