Opinion (Greg Palast): Staying half the course

The Iraq Study Group

Iraq Study Group or Saudi Protection League? They're kidding, right?

James Baker III and the seven dwarfs of the "Iraq Study Group" have come up with some simply brilliant recommendations. Not.

Baker's two Big Ideas are:

1 Stay half the course. Keeping 140,000 troops in Iraq is a disaster getting more disastrous. The Baker Boys' idea: cut the disaster in half - leave 70,000 troops there.

But here's where dumb gets dumber: the Bakerites want to "embed" US forces in Iraqi army units. Question one, Mr Baker: What Iraqi army? This so-called "army" is a rough confederation of Shia death squads. We can tell our troops to get "embedded" with them, but the Americans won't get much sleep.

2 "Engage" Iran. This is a good one. How can we get engaged when George Bush hasn't even asked them out for a date? What will induce the shy mullahs of Iran to accept our engagement proposal? Answer: the bomb.

Let me explain. To get the Iranians to end their subsidising the Mahdi army and other Shia cut-throats, the Baker bunch suggest we let the permanent members of the UN security council - plus Germany - decide the issue of Iran's nukes. Attaching Germany is the signal. These signers of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) agree that Iran should be allowed a "peaceful" nuclear power programme.

Now, I am absolutely wary of neocon nuts who want to blow Iran to kingdom-come over its nuclear ambitions. But that doesn't mean we should kid ourselves. Iran has zero need for "peaceful" nuclear-generated electricity. It has the second-largest untapped reserve of natural gas on the planet, a clean, safe, cheap source of power. There's only one reason for a "nuclear" programme, and it's not to light Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bedside lamp.

Read the rest at the Guardian