Un-Curious George flew in his British servant to Washington this week, presumably not only for moral support in trying times, but to also help him understand the just-released Iraq Study Group report, since apparently neither a Cliff Notes version nor an audio version are yet available. But having had his trusty man Blair's opinion on the subject, and despite all efforts to publicly appear to be, well, not quite-so-mad, King George remains very much stuck inside his bubble of self-delusion.
It took the Baker group rather longer than some of the rest of us to come to one conclusion (or was it a recommendation, or perhaps a hint of a suggestion?) that the US needs to diplomatically engage Iran and Syria in order to help stabilize Iraq and/or help us out of this mess we got ourselves into. Duh, duh, and double duh. But George, who's heard this all before, has already rejected that hint, saying on Thursday that his policy on talking to Iran and Syria remains as before, i.e., we won't talk to them until they get their acts together to our complete satisfaction. And getting their acts together means in the case of Syria withdrawing support from Hezbollah and stopping arms flow into Iraq and Lebanon, and in the case of Iran, their suspension of uranium enrichment.
As Georgie puts it so elegantly: "If they want to sit down at the table with the United States, it's easy -- just make some decisions that will lead to peace, not to conflict." If they want to sit down at the table with the US.....hmmm; that one part of the statement perhaps says more about poor George's delusions than anything else he's said in this annus mirabilis for Iran and horribilis for him. The very idea that Iran and Syria, rather than us, are the ones desperate "to sit down at the table", or that talking to Iranians and Syrians is a very great favor to be bestowed upon them at a time when we are looking for any avenue, street or alley that might lead us the hell out of their neighborhood, must have elicited guffaws in Tehran and Damascus.
Our poor beleaguered president hasn't seemed to grasp the idea that we're losing in Iraq and that we're in no position to dictate terms to countries whose help we might want to ask for. With all due respect, Mr. President, the Baker report doesn't suggest that the Iranians and the Syrians are the ones looking for ways to help us out of our mess. Best read it carefully.