Iraq Study Group
The Iraq Study Group has released a negative report on Iraq which has been pasted over the news over the past few days. I haven't read the report. I don't intend to read the report, but a few things trouble me....
Firstly, it has been said that the US Officials have vastly underreported the violence in Iraq. From this AP article on Yahoo

The panel pointed to one day last July when U.S. officials reported 93 attacks or significant acts of violence. "Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence," it said.

Note the difference...'significant acts of violence' versus 'acts of violence'. Without looking deeper into it, the difference between significant and all acts of violence appears obvious. AP has moved away from the 'fake but true' claims of people being burned alive, towards 'real but false' claims of equivocation.

Secondly, I continue to hear a lot of people refer to the ISG as a bipartisan committee. But looking at who was on it, it seems to be bipartisan in name only....
'Republicans'
* James Baker, former Secretary of State
* Sandra Day O'Connor, former Supreme Court Justice
* Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State
* Edwin Meese III, former US Attorney General
* Alan K. Simpson, former Wyoming Senator

'Democrats'
* Lee Hamilton, former US Representative and vice chair of the lame 9/11 commission.
* Vernon Jordan, Jr., business executive
* Leon E. Panetta, former White House Chief of Staff
* William J. Perry, former US Secretary of Defense
* Charles S. Robb, former Governor of Virginia and former U.S. Senator

How many of the 'republicans' were for the Iraq war in the first place?
Certainly not Baker, who has been an appeaser for decades.
Eagleburger was against the Iraq war.
Sandra Day O'Connor is the former supreme court justice who was a middle of the road person at best.
Simpson is republican who has moved so far to the left that his views are more in line with the democrats.
That leaves Meese as the only Hawk on the 10 person 'bipartisan' committee. It's hardly what I would call balanced.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Friday, December 08, 2006