Reality Versus The “Realists”
Senators yesterday did a bit of heavy clubbing on the Iraq Studies Group report. According to the Washington Post, there were a lot more people (Senators and Congressmen) unhappy with the report's recommendations than there were people pleased with them. And the strongest condemnation came from a Democrat.
Separately, in another indication of the difficulties the commission's recommendations may encounter in Congress, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, characterized the Iraq Study Group report as "theater" and "devoid of any basis in reality" because it offers what he considers overly ambitious plans that almost certainly cannot be carried out.
"The practical realities of these empty recommendations will be clear when we try to implement any of this stuff," Abercrombie said in an interview.
The only people who seem to be at least partially convinced of the rightness of the report are the two men who chaired it. But even they expressed a certain fatalistic "who knows?". It doesn't sound like they have completely convinced even themselves.
Baker and Hamilton proved to be unusual witnesses. They conceded that their 79 recommendations carry a good deal of risk, but they essentially said no one else had a better idea. "We think it is worth a try," said Baker, conveying the sense that the United States is down to its last chance in Iraq, and that the group had prescribed the least bad of several options.
"You don't have much to lose here," Hamilton added in defending the diplomatic recommendations. "Things are not going in a very good direction right now, and why not take some chance here in involving these countries?"
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? Even the "realists" can't quite get behind the "reality" they are pushing.
By ajacksonian, Friday, 8 December , 2006 @ 1:17 pm
These poor ‘Realists’ living in a surreal world of their own imagining… they create a problem that they can no longer handle and then decide to take zero blame for the problems they have caused. Of course they live in an echo chamber of nodding numbness, so how could they admit failure of their grand view of the world? Time to put that ‘Realism’ behind us.
By Mark, Saturday, 9 December , 2006 @ 2:48 pm
Aren’t the realists the one who left Saddam in power to be a problem for the rest of the “real” world to deal with later?
Sounds like “realism” means delay problems until later for someone else to deal with.