I already noted it, but it looks like others are now catching on to the fact that the Iraq Study Group is repeating many of the same things John Kerry has been saying for quite a while. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports:
Some of the recommendations from the Iraq Study Group sound especially familiar to U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., who campaigned on many of them when he ran for president two years ago.“The report underscores what many of us have long been arguing: There is no military solution to our deep problems in Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said Wednesday after the report was released. He said the focus should be on a report that spotlights the futility of the current Iraq policy and deserves the attention of the White House.
For example, the report calls for the withdrawal of nearly all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by early 2008. While Mr. Kerry was far from alone in advocating such a timetable, he was talking about it during the 2004 presidential campaign. On Wednesday, he lamented only that the study committee recommendation did not include a deadline.
In an April 22 speech at Boston’s Faneuil Hall, Mr. Kerry said, “Iraqi leaders have responded only to deadlines — a deadline to transfer authority to a provisional government, and a deadline to hold three elections … And it will demand deadline toughness to rein in Shiite militias Sunnis say are committing horrific acts of torture every day in Baghdad. So we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on its own two feet.”
The report recommends pressuring Iraqi leaders to assume responsibility for their country’s security — another central Kerry theme that he touched upon in that same Boston speech:
“If Iraq’s leaders succeed in putting together a government, then we must agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by year’s end,” he said at the time. “Doing so will actually empower the new Iraqi leadership, put Iraqis in the position of running their own country and undermine support for the insurgency, which is fueled in large measure by the majority of Iraqis who want us to leave their country.”
Writing in The New York Times on April 5, Mr. Kerry called for a summit meeting where Iraqi factions would work toward a political agreement that includes security guarantees, the dismantling of the militias and a plan for reconstruction.
Speaking again at Faneuil Hall in September, Mr. Kerry said, “Our own generals have said Iraq cannot be solved militarily. Only through negotiation and diplomacy can you stem the growing civil war.”
The report emphasizes a regional approach, saying that Syria and Iran should be involved in ending the violence.
Mr. Kerry broached that suggestion in an April 2004 speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., three months before accepting the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency.
Wednesday, Mr. Kerry endorsed the report’s call for additional military and economic support to Afghanistan, saying it is clear the U.S. must simultaneously redeploy from Iraq to succeed in Afghanistan.
I am glad to see that Sen. Kerry’s efforts have finally been acknowledged. It is time for this administration to admit that there is no military solution to Iraq and the only solution that remains is a political and a diplomatic one. They should also admit that we can no longer win this war. I am glad that the ISG Report recommended withdrawal of troops by 2008, though I wish it was sooner and that a date for redeployment of troops should have been set. It is vital that we let Al Maliki know that we can’t be in Iraq indefinitely.
The administration must put pressure on him via a deadline and let him know that there would be consequences for not meeting benchmarks and not making political progress in Iraq. Diplomacy clearly is the key to solving the problems in Iraq. The administration has already decided to not talk to Iran and Syria. I never expected them to. Whatever the new strategy may be till won’t succeed unless we talk to Iraq’s neighbors and make them part of any solution that ends the war in Iraq.