They also made some bold suggestions; among the best of them was to engage Iran and Syria constructively.  The ISG is hardly the first group to say this, but it certainly helps that they've thrown their weight behind the proposal.

And they made a long needed condemnation of the Bush administration's diplomacy record: f

Iraq's neighbors and much of the international community have not been persuaded to play an active and constructive role in supporting Iraq. The ability of the United States to shape outcomes is diminishing. Time is running out.

Young Mister Bush: Taking It Like a Boy

Whatever else it may or may not have accomplished, the ISG took an overdue paddle to 60 old Mister Bush's behind.  His foreign policy has failed, so badly that there may not be a way to fix the situation in Iraq and the Middle East.  

At a Wednesday morning press conference Press Conference, ISG members were remarkably candid during the question and answer session.  

Former Congressman and member of the 9/11 Commission Lee Hamilton confessed that it may already be too late for the ISG's recommendations to be effective. "From the very beginning we recognized that events could overtake our work, could overtake policy, American policy in the region. And that may still be the case."  What might those events be?  "Anarchy, total chaos, the collapse of the government without a new government taking its place and rampant violence throughout the country."

Many would argue that those events are already taking place.

Leon Panetta, President Clinton's former Chief of staff, said, "I think we owe it to [the Iraqis] to try to take one last chance at making Iraq work and, more importantly, to take one last chance at unifying this country on this war. I think the president understands that he simply is not going to be able to proceed with whatever policy changes he wants to implement if we're divided."

That sounded to me like Panetta telling Sonny that he's got one last chance to get his head unscrewed from wherever it's buried or he's tomorrow's breakfast special at Denny's.

Hamilton, Panetta and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made a point of saying that ISG has no statutory authority, and that having completed its work, no longer exists as an advisory body.

In naval aviator-ese, this translates into: "Told ya.  See ya.  Sure hate to be ya."  

Several ISG members alluded to bipartisanship in Congress and the role of the press in pulling the country together, but it was clear that real focus of their remarks was the Commander in Chief, and the message was "The bus you hear roaring down the street has your name on it."

How will Bush take all this?  All the unflattering psychological profiles of him that I've read and heard resonate, but I've given up trying to figure out what, if anything, is going on between the guy's ears, or who--besides Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and his God--he listens to anymore.  

When Mister Bush finally decides to publicly address the ISG report, listen closely to what he says, and see if it sounds any different than anything you've heard from him in the past six years.  My best guess and worst fear is that his spin masters will search the ISG's report and press conference transcript for the most convenient lever they can find to discredit it, and I'll bet you a Coca Cola that here's what they'll come up with for Mister Bush's speech:

"ISG Chairman Jim Baker himself said that the approach his committee recommended has its shortcomings ..."

Anybody care to take me up on that bet?

In Other News...

Forget about the danger of Cheney talking Bush into launching another unprovoked attack on Iran for the sake of keeping a stranglehold on the world's energy market.  That's small potatoes compared to the latest news from NASA.

NASA's Mars rovers, which have been exploring the planet's surface since they landed there in 2004, have found strong evidence that suggests that water flowed on the planet long ago.

Stand by for a national mobilization to combat the Axis of Extraterrestial Evil.  

Wanted Dead or Alive: al-Ming the Merciless.

Despite urging by the Interplanetary Study Group, don't expect the Bush administration to engage in direct diplomatic talks with Venus or Jupiter, which Condi Rice's State Department is about to identify as "rogue planets."

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Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Read his commentaries at Pen and Sword.