Daddy To The Rescue

Well, surrogate daddy anyway. It appears the consigliere of the Bush family, James Baker, is going to fix the boo-boo and make it all better:

James A. Baker III, the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said Sunday that he expected the panel would depart from Mr. Bush’s repeated calls to “stay the course,” and he strongly suggested that the White House enter direct talks with countries it had so far kept at arm’s length, including Iran and Syria.

“I believe in talking to your enemies,” he said in an interview on the ABC News program “This Week,” noting that he made 15 trips to Damascus, the Syrian capital, while serving Mr. Bush’s father as secretary of state.

“It’s got to be hard-nosed, it’s got to be determined,” Mr. Baker said. “You don’t give away anything, but in my view, it’s not appeasement to talk to your enemies.”

Do you believe that you actually have to tell the Administration to do this? All you have to do is look at the consequences of not talking to your enemies for proof that belligerence and treating countries like children is a poor strategy. One pulled out of a nonproliferation treaty and is now testing nuclear weapons; one has improved their leverage in the Muslim world and benefited from a Shiite Crescent stretching across Asia Minor. Of course you talk to your enemies, especially if they can be of service in Iraq, which is completely out of control.

But don't worry, daddy Baker to the rescue!

His comments Sunday offered the first glimmer of what other members of his study group, in interviews over the past two weeks, have described as an effort to find a politically face-saving way for Mr. Bush slowly to extract the United States from the war. “I think it’s fair to say our commission believes that there are alternatives between the stated alternatives, the ones that are out there in the political debate, of ‘stay the course’ and ‘cut and run,’ ” Mr. Baker said.

That's of course a false choice, since nobody on the Democratic side is advocatiing "cut and run." Those stated alternatives, as Baker puts it, are the ones set out by the President is his "War on Straw" tour across America. Baker is being treated like an honest broker in much the same way the American press treats the US government as an honest broker when it comes to Israel and Palestine. Baker is a Bush loyalist of the highest order, and any plans he'll dribble out, as it says EXPLICITLY in the article, will be Bush policies that Bush doesn't want to say himself because he'd look like a rank hypocrite.

According to White House officials and commission members, Mr. Baker has been talking to President Bush and his national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, on a regular basis. Those colleagues say he is unlikely to issue suggestions that the president has not tacitly approved in advance.

“He’s a very loyal Republican, and you won’t see him go against Bush,” said a colleague of Mr. Baker, who asked not to be identified because the study group is keeping a low profile before it formally issues recommendations. “But he feels that the yearning for some responsible way out which would not damage American interests is palpable, and the frustration level is exceedingly high."

There is so much politics wrapped up in this story. For one, having Jim Baker hint at a new direction, but state that his report will not be released until after the elections, does feel like "a secret plan to end the war." Second, it comes down to a matter of trust. Do you trust the Adminstration that went to war based on deception and overhyped intelligence, that dismissed any evidence that an insurgency existed for two years, that won't admit the country is in civil war, indeed an Administration that seems incapable of understanding the actual situation on the ground in Iraq, to come with a plan to fix it?

This so-called "Study Group" is a sham. It's a way to kick the ball down the road and not face the reality that Iraq is over, lost, done. It's a calculated attempt to put it out there to moderates that the Bush Administration is ready to come home to the middle and take decisive action on Iraq and bring the boys home. It's kabuki theater, no doubt about it.