Globe On ISG: Consensus More Important Than Getting It Right

Sure, the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group might be largely useless. But hey, check out all the wonderful consensus - and cue another chorus of Kumbaya! That, in a nutshell, is the message of the Boston Globe's editorial of this morning, Presidential Ingratitude.

Excerpts:

• "Whatever might be questioned in any particular recommendation of the report, the bipartisan spirit and consensus-building purpose of the Iraq Study Group deserve grateful praise from the president, not a defensive rejection."
• "The Iraq Study Group may not have come up with all the right answers; in their pursuit of unanimity, they may have settled for split-the-difference compromises where only one straight path makes sense. But in their bipartisan spirit of cooperation, they gave Americans a much-needed reminder of how statecraft once was conducted."
• "With its revival of the tradition of seeking consensus on foreign policy, the Baker-Hamilton report offers Bush a chance he should not miss."

Message to the Globe editorial board: please go back and read what you just wrote: "The Iraq Study Group may not have come up with all the right answers; in their pursuit of unanimity, they may have settled for split-the-difference compromises where only one straight path makes sense. But in their bipartisan spirit of cooperation, they gave Americans a much-needed reminder of how statecraft once was conducted." "

Surely you can't mean that. With so much at stake,  you can't believe that it is more important for "statecraft" to achieve consensus than to find "the right answers," can you?

To hell with consensus and Kumbaya. Let's win the war on terror. And if that means bruising the tender egos of Vernon Jordan, Leon Panetta, & Co. you know what? - we can live with that.

Finkelstein recently returned from Iraq. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net