So what’s Plan B then?

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The report of the Iraq Study Group is out. (Summary available here.) A couple of thoughts that are prompted by it:

  • Firstly there is the interesting shift in US discourse to blaming the Iraqis, as if, somehow, they had brought all this upon themselves.
  • Then there’s the Report’s central idea — that a timetable should set for the Iraqis to get their house in order, after which the US will go home — in 2008. But there’s no evidence so far that the Iraqi government has a hope in hell of getting a grip on the situation. The chaos and carnage will, in all likelihood, get worse. So will the US then walk away? The Report seems to envisage no Plan B.

    I saw a suggestion recently on a Blog somewhere (can’t remember where, to my chagrin) that one way of rating US presidents is on how long it takes to clear up after them. On that metric, even Ronald Reagan looks reasonable. But Dubya is a catastrophe.

    Another interesting thing: there was a report on the BBC today (also here) that George Bush Snr burst into tears recently at a public event when he was introducing his other boy, Jeb (Governor of California). What can this mean?