Iraq Study Group—Let’s retreat from Iraq and negotiate with our enemies at the same time

Paul at Powerline reports on a conference call with ISG members William Perry and Alan Simpson.

Perry summarized the Report’s conclusion as follows: the situation in Iraq is dire; if we don’t change course it will get worse; the proper change is to focus on training Iraqis and to send home all of troops except those needed for force protection and to fight al Qaeda, and on the diplomatic front, to open talks with Iraq’s neighbors and try to negotiate peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Here’s a passage from the report, quoted by John Podhoretz at The Corner:

“Iraq’s neighbors and key states in and outside the region should form a support group to reinforce security and national reconciliation within Iraq, neither of which Iraq can achieve on its own.”

Support group? It seems as if in this ISG the “Realists” have merged with the appeasing, therapeutic left.

John Hagan writes:

Looks like the anti-Israeli crowd from the Bush 41 days are back at the helm in Washington now that 43 has curled up into a ball.

LA replies:

John O’Sullivan said the same thing in today’s NY Post.

This ISG disaster is the result of neoconservatism. Instead of pursuing a national policy to defend America and make America strong, they pursued, in the name of national defense and patriotism, this unreal universal democracy policy which inevitably failed, and so discredited national defense and patriotism, and as a result the anti-American and anti-Israel left and their appeasing “Realist” allies are coming into power.

It’s the classic pattern: the rule of liberals (in this case neoconservatives) undermines and weakens the nation, leading to the rule of the left.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 06, 2006 09:23 PM | Send