Thursday, December 07, 2006
Turning a Blind Eye
A more careful analysis of the Baker-Hamilton ISG report will be forthcoming. I'm reading up on the subject now and I hope to put pen to paper over the weekend. For now, I just wanted to mention a salient observation that I came across while reading a National Review analysis of the Baker-Hamilton report. It pointed out that the highly celebrated report failed to address, at all, the radical Islamist ideology that is fueling the terror in Iraq and around the world. Can any study, purporting to grasp the root causes of the current crises in the Arab world, be complete if it excludes the eschatological and nihilistic strains driving Islamic terrorism? I think not. Many in the West continue to ignore the particular nature of ISLAMIC terrorism, and speak only in terms of political and diplomatic solutions, which are of course, also important. However, to ignore the thorny and politically incorrect issue of militant Islamic Fascism’s questionable philosophical/ideological strains is a grave error, no doubt rooted in the disgustingly popular political correctness of today’s establishment.
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While talking about things that won't work in Iraq, let's not forget about Biden's five point plan for Iraq that was in the NYT earlier this year:
ReplyDelete"The first is to establish three largely autonomous regions with a viable central government in Baghdad.
...The second element would be to entice the Sunnis into joining the federal system with an offer they couldn't refuse. ...The Constitution must be amended to guarantee Sunni areas 20 percent (approximately their proportion of the population) of all revenues. ...The third component would be to ensure the protection of the rights of women and ethno-religious minorities by increasing American aid to Iraq but tying it to respect for those rights.
...Fourth, the president must direct the military to design a plan for withdrawing and redeploying our troops from Iraq by 2008 (while providing for a small but effective residual force to combat terrorists and keep the neighbors honest).
...Fifth, under an international or United Nations umbrella, we should convene a regional conference to pledge respect for Iraq's borders and its federal system."