ISG Report - Change in Course its about time

I started reading the Iraq Study Group Report yesterday and found it quite an interesting read. If you don't have the time, I would recommend reading just the first two sections, the letter from the co-chairs and the executive summary.

It is interesting since reading this made me think that George W. Bush, could have saved us billions of dollars and countless lives, if he had simply made some strategic tacks years before this commission was put together. I can remember having discussions and arguments during the 2004 election about Bush's steadfast refusal to budge one iota of an inch from his policies, regardless of what was being said or done that might have directly contradicted the policies.

I am not saying or expecting that Bush would have all of sudden turned tail and become a dove, but any good leader (which Bush is clearly not) has the ability and responsibility to modify, change, upgrade, or update their plans as the playing field, battle field, marketplace etc. changes over the course of time. No strategy is ever 100% static, and will never last forever primarily because the world changes. Situations, scenarios, players, tactics all change over time, and often make strategies irrelevant over time. In any situation, political, business, military your rival, competition, enemy is going to become immune to your tactics over time and having a strategy that does not change or evolve over time only marks that group or individual for ultimate extinction.

But instead of making the necessary course corrections in 2003, 2004, 2005 or 2006 the President is now forced to take the advise of his daddy's adviser's and do what others have been suggesting for years. Bush now looks like an even weaker president and person that he did a few weeks or months ago. Couple this report with the November election results and W is starting to look an awful lot like the lame duck he has always been.

It is somewhat sad that the news today shows that the White House is now going to do its own investigation, since they are under no obligation to follow the panels recommendations. If this occurs this is only cost to more time and money, in a no-win situation, rather than to begin the process of withdrawing and diplomatically stabilizing the region as the ISG suggests. From Yahoo:

"The American people expect us to come up with a new strategy," Bush said.

"I believe we need a new approach and that's why I've tasked the Pentagon to analyze the way forward," he said. In addition to the Iraq Study Group, studies are under way at the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council on next steps.

The response made it clear that Bush did not intend to be influenced only by the bipartisan panel's report, which contained 79 specific recommendations, but by the other studies as well.