Is the Baker Report Worth the Cost?

[ProSense]

Is the Baker Report Worth the Cost?

by cyberotter
Fri Nov 17, 2006 at 11:43:12 AM PST



Yesterday the Baker group met with cabinet officials for the first time. During this meeting an outline of a four-point plan was introduced. The Baker Report will be the Administrations "last big push" to win the war in Iraq. The Republicans are buying time with this report. Time to recover from a devastating loss in mid-term elections. Time to create the look and feel of "staying the course" being the only option that makes any sense. Time to denounce the "cut and run" platform the Democrats have been labeled with. Buying precious news cycle space promoting the new direction the Republicans have come up with, recognizing the will of the people at last. Buying time to allow the General to give his assessment of what is going on "on the ground" in Iraq.

Snip...

Does anyone else feel the "stay the course" vibe unfolding within this "new" approach to the war in Iraq? A senior US official said this about the Baker Report.

"Bush has said 'no' to withdrawal, so what else do you have? The Baker report will be a set of ideas, more realistic than in the past, that can be used as political tools. What they're going to say is: lower the goals, forget about the democracy crap, put more resources in, do it."

Most rational congressmen and women know Iraq is a failed policy. Most will not take a firm stand without the Baker Report to hide behind, including our fearless leader. So what is this cowardice costing us?

Here was yesterday's payment.

Anbar Province
Bring `em on: One U.S. soldier and three Marines were killed during combat in Anbar Province, the insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, the military said in a statement Wednesday. The soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division and the three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Tuesday from wounds sustained in "enemy action while operating in Anbar Province," the statement said.

Baghdad
A suicide bomber drove his car into a tent where a funeral was being held in the mostly Sunni-Arab neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 15.

Three bodies, blindfolded with their hands and legs tied, were found by police in eastern Baghdad.

A car bomb exploded in a parking lot in central Baghdad on Wednesday, killing eight people and wounding 32. The car exploded near a gasoline station about 9:45 a.m. in the Bab Shargi neighborhood.

Gunmen attacked the convoy of Salama al-Khafagi, a former member of the governing Council, wounding a bodyguard and killing a passer-by in the western Jamiaa district of Baghdad.

Two Shiites were killed by gunmen who set fire to their home in southern Baghdad.

Baquba
In Baqouba, Luma al-Karkhi, who worked for the independent weekly al-Dustor, was shot and killed while on her way to work. With the slayings of al-Taie and al-Karkhi, at least 91 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began in March 2003

Two mortar rounds landed near a police station in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

Basra
British forces killed an insurgent when they came under fire from a house in Basra. A British soldier was wounded and an Iraqi woman was killed by the insurgent.

Near Diwaniya
Gunmen abducted 12 workers at a brick factory on Tuesday in a town near Diwaniya, 180 km south of Baghdad.

Kirkuk
In Kirkuk, gunmen killed a police officer in a drive-by shooting as he was heading to work.

Gunmen killed a traffic police officer in the northern city of Kirkuk.

Kut
A former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was gunned down outside his home in the city of Kut.

Latifiya
Police found 10 bodies in the town of Latifiya, 40 km south of Baghdad, and they were investigating whether they were those of 10 Shi'ite travellers kidnapped at the weekend.

Mosul
In Mosul, gunmen intercepted the car of journalist Fadia Mohammed al-Taie, killing her and her driver. Al-Taie worked as a reporter for the independent weekly newspaper al-Massar.

The morgue in Mosul received the bodies of four people shot dead, including two policemen.

Samarra
Police retrieved the body of a woman from the Tigris river in Samarra. She had gunshot wounds in her head and was bound.

Seems like we are being over billed for the lip service tactics this President is selling.

[ProSense]

1. Kissinger: Iraq military win impossible

Kissinger: Iraq military win impossible

By TARIQ PANJA, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

LONDON - Military victory is no longer possible in Iraq, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a television interview broadcast Sunday.

Kissinger presented a bleak vision of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors — including Iran — if progress is to be made in the region.

"If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

But Kissinger, an architect of the Vietnam war who has advised President Bush about Iraq, warned against a rapid withdrawal of coalition troops, saying it could destabilize Iraq's neighbors and cause a long-lasting conflict.

"A dramatic collapse of Iraq — whatever we think about how the situation was created — would have disastrous consequences for which we would pay for many years and which would bring us back, one way or another, into the region," he said.

Kissinger, whose views have been sought by the Iraqi Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James Baker III, called for an international conference bringing together the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Iraq's neighbors — including Iran — and regional powers like India and Pakistan to work out a way forward for the region.

"I think we have to redefine the course, but I don't think that the alternative is between military victory, as defined previously, or total withdrawal," he said.

[kentuck]

2. My guess is that Baker is trying to find a "political" solution for Jr...

Trying to save face and save his Party.