James Baker…Another Dolt!

“The members of the Iraq Study Group hope that their collaboration will, among things, help usher in a new spirit of bipartisanship. So as a Republican, I'll offer this bipartisan thought -- other than Jimmy Carter, I can't think of a major public figure I like less than James Baker.

The two share a strong desire to stick it to Israel. I've always thought that Baker's is less pathological than Carter's, but after reading the ISG report (and Scott's post below), I'm no longer certain. Baker's position as head of the ISG has provided him with one last chance to exert pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions, and Baker has seized that opportunity with gusto.
Yet the Israeli-Palestinian question has nothing to do with our problems in Iraq, and the ISG report presents no evidence or argument to the contrary. The Sunni insurrection is unrelated to Israel -- it's an attempt by those who had power under Saddam to seize back that power, or as much of it as they can. Al Qaeda didn't join that insurrection because of Israel. It wants to kill Americans, deal the U.S. a defeat, and establish a new territorial base of operations. The Shiite militias aren't in business because of Israel. They're interested in obtaining power and dishing out revenge on the Sunnis. Iran isn't meddling because of Israel. It wants influence in Iraq or, short of that, to make sure its old adversary remains weak.”

Read the rest.