More on the Baker-Hamilton Report

I read every word in the Baker-Hamilton report this weekend and what struck me above all was how many of the recommendations were of the "wave of the wand" variety -- i.e., policies that might make sense if they could be accomplished magically but that are utterly unachievable under present circumstances. A very large percentage of the recommendations, well over 50 percent in my opinion, were of this kind. For all the publicity the report received and despite its bipartisan unanimity, the report in its totality is a wish list, not a strategy. The message this conveyed to me is that Baker, Hamilton and their colleagues really don't know how to save the situation in Iraq. They did not say so directly, of course, but I felt after reading the report that the members of the Commission believe that war in Iraq is already lost. Just as the White House and the Pentagon can be faulted for failing to plan what to do after "victory," the failing of the Baker-Hamilton Commission is that it does not say how the United States should deal with the situation in the Middle East now that we have failed to achieve our objectives in Iraq.