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HOPE IS A PLAN. IT IS IT IS IT IS! Jonah Goldberg, amid a column bashing the ISG report for a lot of good reasons, takes an ill-advised whack:
Nowhere does the commission ever seriously consider how to win the war in Iraq. Why? Because winning is no longer a possible consensus position. And pulling out isn't a consensus position either. So rather than a real strategy about Iraq, we get Laodicean tripe about how the Iraq Study Group is our last best hope to unite Americans. I'm sorry, but that wasn't its mandate.This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the report. Indeed, the only serious thing it considered -- and pronounced on -- was the possibility of winning the war in Iraq. And the absence of such a strategy isn't because winning isn't a "consensus position," it's that it no longer appears a realistic outcome. The ISG essentially concluded that the war was lost, and the question was how to lose most quietly. That's not because the members didn't want to break out the trumpets and announce their strategy for victory, it's because the dispiriting, constant flow of information and expert opinion convinced them that no such strategy was on offer. Indeed, despite all the commentators calling for a renewed push towards triumph, I'm hearing a lot more sentiment than strategy. For instance: Jonah Goldberg has an LA Times column and a popular blog. If he knows of a way to spark national reconciliation en route to a pluralistic, peaceful democracy in Iraq, I'm sure the rest of us would be happy to listen. But from now on, that should be a rule. If you want to demand America start thinking about winning again, you have to give some outline or argument that makes clear why winning is a possible, rather than merely desirable, outcome.--Ezra Klein
