Baker-Hamilton Won't Solve Iraq, Just DC's Iraq Hangover

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted December 5, 2006.

For the Iraq disaster to end, someone in DC is actually going to have to make a difficult decision -- admit defeat, invite a bloody civil war, lose face before a pair of rogue terror-supporting states -- and it's obvious that no one's ever going to do that, not until there's absolutely no choice.

In private, some members of the Iraq Study Group have expressed concern that they could find themselves in not-quite-open confrontation with Mr. Bush. "He's a true believer," one participant in the group's debates said. "Finessing the differences is not going to be easy." -- David Sanger, New York Times, "Idea of Rapid Withdrawal From Iraq Seems to Fade," Dec. 1.

What a fiasco this whole Baker-Hamilton episode is, with all its attendant leaks and media manipulations -- a veritable symphony of Typical Washington Bullshit. It has all the hallmarks of the pusillanimous, cover-your-ass mentality that rules our nation's capital, where all problems are political problems and actual real emergencies never make it to the desk of anyone who matters.