Only in Washington DC would you form a Congressional Commission and include not a single retired military officer with Counter Insurgency expereince or any Arab-Persian Political/Cultural Regional Expert on the panel.
Some where the ghost of LBJ is laughing his butt off watching another bunch of DC policy geeks and Beltway insiders trying to micromanage a war from 9,000 miles away
Iraq Study Group (ISG)= REMFs
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Not to mention the secretary of defense during the crisis under discussion--baggage-laden or not.
If there's any justice in the universe at all, that somewhere is Hell.
Only in Washington DC would you form a Congressional Commission and include not a single retired military officerIt would be like forming a commission to study some big city high-crime problem and include only defense lawyers and paroled prisoners.
It suggests that the entire exercise was not about winning the war, but about saving Beltway ass, does it not?
No other conclusion is possible.
No military representation, either active duty or retired, no Middle East experts or Arabists such as Bernard Lewis, no local Iraqi representation, no, just a bunch of career Washington insiders and politicians. Sandra Day O'Connor? I'm not even sure of her legal expertise much less any concerning conduct of a fight against an insurgency. Vernon Jordan? A Washington power broker? And Lee Hamilton? This man has done more damage with his 9/11 Commission work and now this ridiculous piece of garbage.