All the news in the US is revolving around the report of the Iraq Study Group -- better known as the Baker-Hamilton commission -- and its suggestions for improving the ugly on-the-ground situation in Mesopotamia.
The report's recommendations are not too surprising. James Baker, the Bush family fix-it-man brought in to try and make things better, is a well-known Arabist thinker who favours engaging the Middle East's dictators. So it is no surprise that the report is calling for "engaging" Syria and Iran, the countries whose leaders are in no small measure responsible for the chaos in Iraq today because of their reluctance to help seal their borders.
It will be interesting to see where the political players vying for the White House in 2008 line up on Iraq strategy. One person who's reacted strongly is Rudy Giuliani, who yesterday sounded the right notes:
"The idea of leaving Iraq, I think, is a terrible mistake," the former mayor said.
The group's report, however, stresses that America should not make an "open-ended" commitment of troops and links the presence of troops to milestones met by the Iraqi government. Mr. Giuliani also rejected the panel's recommendation that America tie the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict to stabilizing Iraq. When asked about this linkage on Mr. Prager's radio show, Mr. Giuliani said, "Israel and Palestine is an important issue. Sometimes it's used as an excuse to deal with underlying issues. But the reality here is that the Islamo-fundamentalist terrorists are at war with our way of life, with our modern world, with rights for women, religious freedom, societies that have religious freedom. And all of that would still exist, no matter what happens in Israel and Palestine."
This is encouraging. Watch out for Rudy '08.
