Realpolitik in the 21st CenturyThat's how
Ralph Peters characterizes the Iraq Study Group's recommendations. He's hit the ball on the screws with this one:
If the Baker commission is the K-Mart version of the Congress of Vienna, its influence may prove no less pernicious. Baker is the dean emeritus of a reactionary school of diplomats--inaccurately labeled "realists"--whose support of the shah of Iran, the Saudi royal family, Anwar Sadat, then Hosni Mubarak, and, not least, Saddam Hussein delivered short-term stability that proved illusory in the long run. It was the "realist" elevation of stability above all other strategic factors--echoing Prince Metternich--that gave us not only the radical regime in Iran, but, ultimately, al Qaeda and 9/11.Great article, highly recommended. I have been wading through the ISG report and the comparison to Metternich is apt. For one thing, the average age of the study group is deceased: Ed Meese, Sandra Day O'Connor and Lawrence Eagleburger are the young faces.