Here Baker-Hamilton Come To Save The Day

The Iraq Study Group Report is here. I agree with Atrios that just because the report is bipartisan doesn't mean it's automatically effective.

There certainly is a time and place for compromise and bipartisanship, but it's a means not an end. Good advice and good policy is what matters, not political asscovering. Splitting the baby is not always a very smart thing to do.

More than that, this sounds like very bad advice indeed. Who was it who said that the report calls for us to "pretend to leave"? That sounds about right.

That said, I like a couple things Lee Hamilton had to say this morning. First, he admitted that there is no magic solution to what will almost certainly end in chaos. "There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved." That's true. The options are all "least bad" at this point. I also am happy that open-ended commitment is being (at least rhetorically) rejected, as well as any claim to permanent military bases.

RECOMMENDATION 22: The President should state that the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Iraq. If the Iraqi government were to request a temporary base or bases, then the U.S. government could consider that request as it would in the case of any other government.

And this recommendation could end the insanity of "emergency funding requests," as if nobody in the government realized we might need cash to keep the war effort going.

RECOMMENDATION 72: Costs for the war in Iraq should be included in the President’s annual budget request, starting in FY 2008: the war is in its fourth year, and the normal budget process should not be circumvented. Funding requests for the war in Iraq should be presented clearly to Congress and the American people. Congress must carry out its constitutional responsibility to review budget requests for the war in Iraq carefully and to conduct oversight.

Of course, virtually none of this has a shot of effecting meaningful change, in my view. The White House is already backing away from the report, calling it "one out of many studies" currently being undertaken. They're trying fiercely to shape and change the debate in Washington. Meanwhile people continue to die, and consensus viewpoints are just as likely to recommend bad policy as eeevuhl partisan ones. After all, going to war in the first place was a consensus viewpoint.