What do the following people have in common:
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Edwin Meese III
Sandra Day O’Connor
Leon E. Panetta
If you answered “members of the Iraq Study Group with no apparent expertise in the Middle East,” you’d be correct.
Additionally, I wonder how much working knowledge Senators Alan Simpson, Charles Robb, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry have on Iraq. But I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, due to their prior posts in government.
The point being that this group has gotten a lot of play, particularly from the news media. Yet when you break down its composition, there’s no reason to assume that these members will come up with a novel peace plan that will magically transform the reason. It seems likely that this group’s chief virtue will be in providing politicians with short-term cover on the problem, as most high-profile blue ribbon commissions are prone to do.
Bush meets with panel on Iraq, but not on policy
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group spent Monday at the White House meeting with President Bush and his