Iraq Study Group: a recipe for suicide

The MSM is pushing the Iraq Study Group's report as the ultimate answer to our situation in Iraq. Below are links, with excerpts, to three articles that explain why the Iraq Study Group's recommendations can't work.


By Victor Davis Hanson:
Talking to Iran a Mistake for Strategic, Moral Reasons

[...] we have a deep misunderstanding of the nature and aims of the Iranian regime. Despite praise from Bill Clinton, Iran's "liberal" plebiscites were never democratic. Candidates were always carefully prescreened, free expression was curtailed, and dissident voices were jailed (and worse). Before 9/11, Hezbollah, with Iran's help, had killed more Americans than any other terrorist organization. No wonder President Ahmadinejad now asks crowds to envision "a world without America."

The Iraqi Study Group says Iran also worries about spillover chaos in Iraq. That is laughable. The opposite is true. The present killing and violence in Iraq divert American attention away from its effort to go nuclear and its interests in Lebanon. As Yahya Rahim Safavi, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, gleefully put it, "The Americans are sunk in the quagmire of Afghanistan and Iraq, and there is no way for them (to move either) forward or backward." So, if Iran finds benefits in an unstable Iraq, why would it wish to play a constructive role?

Instead of worrying about negotiating with Iran, we need to be primarily preparing for the awful day when Iran can arm its missiles with nuclear weapons. [...]

He give four main reasons as to why the Surrender Groups recommendations will fail, and suggests what we should do instead. It's not a long article, and it's packed with facts, well worth reading.



From Jack Kelly:
Failing to Know the Enemy, And Ourselves

[...] Rep. Reyes, D-Tex, has been chosen by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He granted an interview last week to Jeff Stein, national security editor for Congressional Quarterly magazine.

Toward the end of a 40 minute interview, Mr. Stein asked Rep. Reyes whether al Qaeda was comprised chiefly of Sunni Muslims, or Shiites. "Predominantly -- probably Shiite," he responded.

The opposite, of course, is true. Al Qaeda is comprised of Sunni extremists who regard Shiite Muslims as heretics who deserve to be killed. Al Qaeda attacks on Shia civilians is what triggered the civil strife in Iraq. [...]

[...] Sun Tzu was a Chinese general who died in 496 B.C. His "Art of War" is the oldest surviving treatise on military strategy. It is still considered the best by most strategists today.

"If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles," Sun Tzu wrote. "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." [...]

Shocking revelations of how ignorant many people in our government are of basic facts of who we are dealing with. And why we need to educate them and ourselves... quickly.



From Ann Coulter:
Surrender by any other name...

[...] Is it the report of the "Iraq Surrender Group" that suddenly caused everyone to say we're losing?

The ISG report was about what you'd expect if the ladies from "The View" were asked to come up with a victory plan for Iraq...

[...] Have things changed on the ground in Iraq? Are our troops being routed? Hardly. The number of U.S. fatalities has gone from a high of 860 deaths in 2004 to 845 in 2005, to 695 through November of this year. If the Islamic fascists double their rate of killing Americans in the next month, there will still be fewer American fatalities in Iraq this year than in the previous two years.

Admittedly, it would be a little easier to track our progress in Iraq if the Pentagon would tell us how many of them we're killing, but apparently our Pentagon is too spooked by the insurgents posing as civilians to mention the deaths of our enemies.

Moreover, it might seem churlish to mention the number of Islamic lunatics we've killed during the holy month of Ramadan. Half the time we do anything to them, it's "the holy month of Ramadan." It's always Ramadan. When on Earth is Ramadan over? [...]

Selective reporting makes our situation in Iraq seem worse than it is. We do need better strategies, but surrender is one we can't afford.