YETMO

”Iraq Study Group Report” (Week of December 4-8 , 2006)

This week my thoughts turn to good will. Or the lack of it. Or the need for it. Or the quest for it. Or, actually, that we, as a nation, have achieved some measure of good will in the form of a 96-page report, now appearing in paperback at bookstores near you.

Jim Baker, Lee Hamilton, and company, a.k.a. the Iraq Study Group, released their recommendations for ending the Iraq War effectively, positively, properly, etc. Fill in whatever adverb resonates most with you.

This column will not discuss any political observations about the Commission’s work. That brand of commentary is better suited for my personal website and appears there now. You’re invited to visit me there, if you wish to experience my delusional and rambling political insights.

Among the staggering number of recommendations – 79!, who can accomplish that many recommendations, or that many of anything else for that matter? – the bulk of them expressed clear statements of existing conditions facing our government in general, and the Executive Branch in particular.

Despite the unmanageable quantity of suggested actions to take, this Report’s serves one very positive purpose: it is forward-looking. There is no analysis or finger-pointing about past decisions. Thus, consensus was reached, and this Commission presented a document overloaded with recommendations, all of which were unanimously accepted.

How little of anything in Washington is unanimously accepted. Thus, the Iraq Study Report toned down the rhetoric and rancor, and signaled that Americans now need to concentrate on rolling up our sleeves and doing the work that must be done to extricate ourselves from the present circumstances with which we are faced in Iraq.

The ball is now in the President’s lap, or, in fact, the Executive Branch’s lap, and the nation will move forward most likely according to what the Baker-Hamilton Group suggested.

Of course, there will be political wrangling about how much or little the President can or can’t accept in the Study Report, but clearly he and the country were looking for someone or, in this case, a some ”thing” comprised of many someones, to articulate a course of action which the nation understands and upon which it can act.

So, as this week concludes, we can celebrate the fact that Americans recognize that the Iraq War is over – win or lose, depending upon your political view – and we will move as promptly politically and practically as we can to bring home the troops safely while minimizing any further damage to our political image and stature in eyes of people around the world.

Perhaps the best way to conclude this column is to include the following paragraph that was contained in James Baker’s and Lee Hamilton’s letter that submitted this Report:

“What we recommend in this report demands a tremendous amount of political will and cooperation by the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government. It demands skillful implementation. It demands unity of effort by government agencies. And its success depends on the unity of the American people in a time of political polarization. Americans can and must enjoy the right of robust debate within a democracy. Yet U.S. foreign policy is doomed to failure—as is any course of action in Iraq—if it is not supported by a broad, sustained consensus. The aim of our report is to move our country toward such a consensus.”