The Iraq Study Group finally released its
long awaited report to Washington’s political leaders and the American public, clearly stating that the “current approach” on U.S. Iraq policy is “not working.” And the report calls for “major changes.”
While there will be much more analysis and reaction to the report, it is clear that it is a strong rebuke to the president’s policy. The report explicitly rejects many of the fundamental premises and stated purposes of the Bush war
in Iraq. The report rejects the call for “victory” in Iraq that President Bush has continued to make, and rather calls for a “responsible conclusion” of the war. How George Bush will respond remains to be seen. But coming the day after Defense Secretary nominee Robert Gates’s Senate testimony, it is yet another dose of reality for a President still trapped in “win the war” rhetoric
I hope and pray that George Bush will honestly and (might we dare dream) humbly join in that debate, and be willing to admit colossal errors and accept new directions. But if Bush persists in his present course and becomes, as one foreign newspaper called him, “the last man standing” in defense of the war policy, then the nation and the Congress must have the debate without him, and ultimately make it less and less possible for him to continue his disastrous and deadly course. On the evening news shows last night, senators from both parties said that the president must face the facts and make critical changes in direction; that time is running out in a situation that is “unwinding very quickly,” as one put it.
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