BAKER/HAMILTON UPDATE….Jim Henley reads about the Baker/Hamilton commission so you don’t have to. Click here for the 30-second summary.
I think Jim has it about right. When push comes to shove, the commission members are going to have a hard time finding a consensus because (a) at least some of them will insist on an honest analysis, but (b) Baker will be unwilling to endorse a report that President Bush is likely to reject. There’s not much middle ground there.
In any case, the two proposals getting the most flagpole time at the moment include talks with Syria and Iran (opposed strenuously by Dick Cheney) and the temporary addition of 20,000 soldiers in Baghdad (pretty much dismissed by the military brass as either impossible or useless). The only other alternative is withdrawal, but virtually no one is willing to sign up to that since it would mean expulsion from the Sober Sensible Analyst club. It’s just too hard for most of these guys to break ranks and admit in public that the fate of Iraq is no longer something we can control.
So the Kabuki dance continues.
