Flap's Dentistry Blog: Iraq War Watch: Iraq Study Group Recommends Engagement with Syria and Iran

A man looks at a burning minibus after a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad’s Sadr city, December 6, 2006.

Reuters: Iraq group recommends engagement with Syria, Iran

A bipartisan panel recommended to President George W. Bush on Wednesday that the United States directly engage with Syria and Iran to help resolve the Iraq conflict, the White House said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the report also recommended that the U.S. military launch a rapid effort to train Iraqi forces to defend their country. It recommends no specific timetable for U.S. troop reductions, he said.

Reading from the report, Snow said the document encourages the United States to “engage directly with Iran, Syria in order to try to obtain their commitment to constructive policies toward Iraq and other regional issues.”

“In engaging Syria and Iran, the United States should consider incentives as well as disincentives in seeking constructive results,” the report said.

What a JOKE.

Syria is attempting to stage a coup in Lebanon and arming Iraqi insurgents/terrorists.

Does the Iraq Study Group propose we help these miscreants?

The United States has been negotiating with Iran for months on the Iran nuclear program.

Where have those negotiations gone?

NOWHERE

What makes anyone think that talking to Iran will be anything more than another ploy to allow Iran to go nuclear.

Israel is already fearful and consideration of further Iranian engagement may push them into military action sooner rather than later. Israel will not sit still while Ahmadinejad boasts that he will wipe Israel off the map.

Flap remembers Senator Joe Lieberman saying engagement with Iran and Syria over Iraq is like having arsonists negotiate with the fire department in order to put out a fire.

On first take, the President is not accepting this argument:

Snow offered his own description of this section: “This is not talk for talk’s sake. This would be, according to the Iraq Study Group, diplomatic engagement but there would be a requirement on the part of the Syrian and the Iranians that they act, that they demonstrate good will … In other words this is not a desire for empty diplomacy.”

But, after Secretary of Defense nominee Robert Gates testimony yesterday who the hell knows what W is thinking?

Stay tuned…….

Cross Posted at the FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog