This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 8:59 pm and is filed under News, Language, Media, IBIWISI, War, Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Change the Course, So They Say
The Iraq Study Group Report. It has dominated the news today. Who says what? What are the comments? How was the book published? What does the report itself say?
It says Iraq is in the midst of a grave and deteriorating crisis. It says Bush policies have failed. According to polls, Americans agree. (All but the red blogging Americans, apparently.) Gore assures Bush the people’s opinions are not about him. Peter Hart of FAIR encourages the media to broaden the debate during the inevitable week of prime time coverage. I haven’t read the report yet, so I don’t know if the report considers the real costs of the war.
The report is downloadable on NPR or for sale in book format on Amazon. There are even reviews on Amazon. The readers bought, received, and read the report already? It was only printed Saturday night and delivered to stores on Monday morning.
Of course, the content of the report blends perfectly with the hearings and Senate vote on the nomination of Robert Gates to be the new Secretary of Defense. I listened to the Armed Services Committee hearings yesterday. As many noted, the committee embraced Gates (even though the Democratic Underground didn’t). I think I heard Hillary Clinton blow him a kiss.
All of the Senators were certainly senatorially polite. Several of them thanked him for his candor. I’m sure that does create a completely shocking new tone to be able to even dream that a Republican nominee would admit that Iraq is a violent mess and staying the course is not a viable option, while all other options remain on the table.
As I listened to him, I wondered if George Bush, a famously stubbon president, would listen to Gates if he made the same observations to Bush. As I listened to coverage of the Iraq Study Group Report, I wondered whether he would actually and personally read it. And, if he does read it, will he genuinely consider the recommendations of his close allies? Given the responses and the insistence that the administration hasn’t used the phrase “stay the course” for three weeks nows (wow, three whole weeks), it seems possible.
Nevertheless, call me skeptical.
Tomorrow the Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the Iraq Study Group. Hugs and kisses all around.
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