[Assam] NY Times Editorial

[Chan Mahanta]

The following from today's NY Times.

Netters may also note the 'axiom' that I 
highlighted, which applies eminently to the Assam 
situation and as relates to 20 years of GoI's 
approach to it.

cm








Editorial
About Those Other Problems

Published: December 10, 2006


No one could ever suggest that James Baker lacks 
ambition or self-confidence. So it is not 
surprising that along with its effort to salvage 
Iraq, the report from Mr. Baker's Iraq Study 
Group offers some strong advice on how to fix 
George W. Bush's dysfunctional Washington - and 
the president's dysfunctional relations with the 
rest of the world.

We were particularly drawn to Recommendations 46, 
72 and 78. Under separate headings dealing with 
the military, the federal budget and the nation's 
intelligence agencies, they share one basic idea: 
Government officials should not lie to the public 
or each other, especially in matters of war.

One should not need a blue ribbon commission to 
know that. But the fact that it had to be said, 
and so often, in the report goes a long way 
toward explaining how Mr. Bush got the country 
into the Iraq mess and why it is proving so hard 
to dig out of it.

Consider Recommendation 46, which calls on the 
new secretary of defense to create "an 
environment in which the senior military feel 
free to offer independent advice" to civilian 
leaders, including the president. That is their 
sworn duty. But the back story is the Pentagon's 
prewar refusal to listen to the former Army chief 
of staff (and who knows how many other generals) 
who warned that it would take several hundred 
thousand troops to stabilize a post-invasion 
Iraq. The good news is that the new secretary of 
defense, Robert Gates, acknowledged as much in 
his confirmation hearings. The bad news is that 
Mr. Bush has not.

  Recommendation 72 says that "costs for the war 
in Iraq should be included in the president's 
annual budget request." The report warns that the 
White House's habit of using emergency funding 
for the war has eroded both "budget discipline" 
and Congressional oversight. And just in case you 
were worrying that you hadn't been paying 
sufficient attention to the war's price tag, the 
report says the White House presents its requests 
in such a "confusing manner" that only detailed 
analyses by budget experts can answer "what 
should be a simple question: How much money is 
the president requesting for the war in Iraq?"

  And finally, Recommendation 78 calls on the 
Pentagon and the intelligence community to 
"institute immediate changes" in how they collect 
data on violence in Iraq "to provide a more 
accurate picture of events on the ground." The 
report says that officials have used a standard 
for recording attacks (it notes that "a murder of 
an Iraqi is not necessarily counted") that 
systematically under reports Iraq's mayhem. It 
cites one day this past July when the government 
recorded 93 "attacks or significant acts of 
violence," while the Iraq Study Group's own 
analysis "brought to light 1,100 acts of 
violence."

  Sprinkled among the recommendations, the report 
also has some homespun advice on how Mr. Bush 
might fix America's foreign relations. It 
suggests that the nature of diplomacy is to 
engage with adversaries as well as friends. And 
it warns that the United States does Israel "no 
favors" by refusing to try to broker peace in the 
Middle East, adding that it is "an axiom that 
when the political process breaks down there will 
be violence on the ground."

It is mind-boggling that this commission felt 
compelled to deliver Governing 101 lessons to the 
president of the United States. But that fits 
with the implicit message of the entire exercise 
- a rebuke of the ideologically blinkered way Mr. 
Bush operates. The report shows that there have 
always been plenty of alternatives to Mr. Bush's 
stubborn insistence on staying the course, and 
that if he were just willing to make an effort, 
it would be possible to forge a bipartisan 
consensus on the toughest issues.

It's tragic that Mr. Bush could not figure that 
out for himself. It is far past time for him to 
heed this new advice.

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