After eight months of intensive work, including observations and interviews in Iraq, the Iraq Study Group submitted its report to the president and Congress on December 6. Much of the mainstream news media—commentators who appeared to have neither read the report nor understood it—dismissed it.
Among their reactions:
“The Iraq Study Group (ISG) report was designed to give the Bush administration a plausible way out of Iraq.”
“The ISG report was ignored by the Bush administration.”
“The ISG report provides nothing new to assist the Bush administration and Congress in developing future strategy for Iraq.”
A fair reading of the report shows that all these conclusions are false.
As stated in the report, the ISG had the same goal as the president: an Iraq that can “govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself” under a broadly representative government, democratically elected, that maintains its territorial integrity, is at peace with its neighbors, denies terrorism a sanctuary, and doesn’t brutalize its own people.
