THE ONLY GUY WHO MATTERS ISN'T A REALIST:

Nothing but woes for Baker group (TIMOTHY M. PHELPS, 11/22/06, Newsday)

Internal strife within the Baker commission, outright opposition from President George W. Bush and Tuesday's assassination of a cabinet member in Lebanon are complicating the prospect of U.S. overtures to Syria and Iran over Iraq, informed sources say.

A source who spoke recently to a leader of the Iraq Study Group said he complained bitterly about internal dissension and partisanship among members of the supposedly bipartisan group, and was worried about reaching consensus on the key issues. [...]

[L]ast week the president strongly endorsed his administration's past tough line with both countries. On Iran he said: "Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions ... And so we have made it very clear, our position regards Iran, and it hasn't changed."

Accusations that Syria was behind Tuesday's assassination of Lebanese Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel are expected to make an opening to Syria more difficult.

Phebe Marr, an Iraq expert who advised the Baker group, said that while she favors approaching Iran and Syria for help, the United States would have to make concessions to each country. "There is a price for that, and it is not clear to me the Bush administration is willing to pay it," she said.

Iran and Syria have interests in a stable Iraq lest they be destabilized themselves. We don't until they have been.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 24, 2006 11:55 AM