This is the real national security threat to America - this sense in the rest of the world that Iraq symbolizes America's fatal new combination of arrogance and incompetence. This report asks the world to help us find our way back home. Even if its proposals don't succeed, the Baker-Hamilton report can still accomplish its purpose, to "enable the United States to begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly."-The Washington Post's David Ignatius, giving the Baker-Hamilton report on the situation in Iraq a symbolic 'thumbs up.'
Reviews seem mixed on the Iraq Study Group report. But we're at the point now where something has to be done. This can't wait until a new president takes over in January 2009.
The war needs to be brought under control. My hope is the new Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, will be able to do that. And then, two years from now, a new president can begin repairing the damage of George W. Bush's arrogance and incompetence. And believe me, no matter who the next president is, that will be a tall order.
