Feingold on ISG Report: No Input From Those Who Opposed Invasion

Mr. Bush, tear down your wall of denial....

It might help bolster the credibility and creativity of recommendations if advisory panels like the Iraq Study Group included a truly diverse membership, wouldn't it? Although I think the report does a good job of describing the horrors on the ground produced by Bush and his enablers (including many Dems), their "comprehensive solution" suggestions seem like way too little, way too late, and way too consistent with conventional Washington wisdom. Sen. Russ Feingold had this to say about the ISG report last night on Countdown:

The fact is this commission was composed apparently entirely of people who did not have the judgment to oppose this Iraq war in the first place, and did not have the judgment to realize it was not a wise move in the fight against terrorism. So that's who is doing this report. Then I looked at the list of who testified before them. There is virtually no one who opposed the war in the first place. Virtually no one who has been really calling for a different strategy that goes for a global approach to the war on terrorism.

So this is really a Washington inside job and it shows not in the description of what's happened - that's fairly accurate - but it shows in the recommendations. It's been called a classic Washington compromise that does not do the job of extricating us from Iraq in a way that we can deal with the issues in Southeast Asia, in Afghanistan, and in Somalia which are every bit as important as what is happening in Iraq. This report does not do the job and it's because it was not composed of a real representative group of Americans who believe what the American people showed in the election, which is that it's time for us to have a timetable to bring the troops out of Iraq. (Video at Crooks and Liars.)

I've been watching the reactions of many talking heads since the report was released and my Maybe I'm Amazed Prize goes to Meet the Press mogul Tim Russert. In a clip last night he was truly FLABBERGASTED and UPSET with the surprising -- nay, SHOCKING -- news that Iraq is a tinderbox, deteriorating into utter chaos and uncontrollably brutal violence caused in no small part by U.S. troop presence and Bush's utterly hubristic and misguided strategies. Who knew? I wonder where Tim has been for 4 years. That beltway bubble must be even more all-encompassing than even I thought it was.

I'm with this guy: excerpt from post by Marty Kaplan on Huffington Post:

September 11th, as it turns out, was not the death of irony. It was the death of maturity, and the death of democracy. It began the time of magical thinking, when theories become true if only we clap harder. It inaugurated the era of reason as treason, dissent as defeatism, and stop-and-think as cut-and-run. It enforced penalties on open discourse and political opposition so severe that neither Mao nor Stalin would have trouble recognizing their handiwork. September 11th infantilized us, intimidated us, and today, as we begin to rouse from our slumber and stupefaction, we can hardly believe the horror we have enabled.

So now we have placed the nine Fabulous Baker Boys, plus the Justice not replaced by Harriet Miers, in some sacred circle where they will have ten minutes to tell the truth and not be called America-haters.

But alas, there will be no happy ending in Iraq. Like parrots squawking "Victory!" and "Finish the Job!" and "Achieve our Objectives!" in a burning house, Bush and Cheney are determined to remain the punchline of a sick joke. Without a military draft, there will be no American force large enough to impose martial law, let alone democracy, on Iraq. Without a return to earth of the Prophet himself, may his name be blessed, there will be no political solution in our lifetime to centuries of Islamic division and violence. All that lies ahead is a nightmare of slaughter, for them and for us; all paths lead to generations of instability, not just in Iraq, but across the region.

Read the rest.

Click to download a copy of the complete ISG report or just the Executive Summary (PDF).