Iraq Study Group's Shortcomings

While the Baker-Hamilton Report accurately summarizes the worsening conditions in Iraq, it does not provide, as Center for Strategic and International Studies Chair Anthony Cordesman addressed in his reaction piece to the ISG report, "workable suggestions for creating or incentivizing such action [that would move Iraq towards reconciliation]."

Policymakers, Mr. Cordesman cites, take for granted that US policy in Iraq is as much to blame for the internal problems that have inflamed sectarian divisions in the country, in addition to the Iraqi government’s shortcomings. As Mr. Cordesman cites,

"The U.S. destroyed the secular core of the country by disbanding the Ba'ath. The U.S. created a constitutional process long before Iraq was ready, and created an intensely divisive document with more than 50 key areas of “clarification” including federation, control of oil resources and money, control of security, the role of religion, the nature of the legal system, etc. The U.S. created an electoral system that almost forced Iraqis to vote to be Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds and divided the nation on sectarian and ethnic lines."

The ISG report takes these important points for granted. Rather than providing incentives to help Iraqis move towards reconciliation and towards secular centralization, it puts the blame and responsibility solely of this momentous task on the shoulders of the weak Iraqi government; essentially telling them that if they don't shape up, the US will begin reducing military/economic aid. These ultimatum-style recommendations that the ISG report puts forward, according to Mr. Cordesman, does not strengthen the Iraqi government, but in fact, delegitimizes it. My own examination of the ISG report finds the same conclusions as Mr. Cordesman.

• How does the US help Iraqi government towards reconciliation?
• What actions do we take if Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr does not cooperate and go along towards an Iraqi unity government?
• Does the US have the authority to use military force against his militia?
• How does the US help craft a system of governance that would allow for the fair sharing and distribution of Iraqi resources, particularly oil?

These are questions US policymakers should be addressing, rather than threatening to remove our resources lest we leave Iraq in a more precarious, destabilized state and that would be to no one's best interest. Read more of Mr. Cordesman's reaction to the ISG report titled "The Baker-Hamilton Study Group Report: The Elephant Gives Birth to a Mouse."

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