Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold On the Iraq Study Group Report December 6, 2006 “Unfortunately, the Iraq Study Group report does too little to change the flawed mind-set that led to the misguided war in Iraq. Maybe there are still people in Washington who need a study group to tell them that the policy in Iraq isn’t working, but the American people are way ahead of this report. "While the report has regenerated a few good ideas, it doesn’t adequately put Iraq in the context of a broader national security strategy. We need an Iraq policy that is guided by our top national security priority – defeating the terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11 and its allies. We can’t continue to just look at Iraq in isolation. Unless we set a serious timetable for redeploying our troops from Iraq, we will be unable to effectively address these global threats. In the end, this report is a regrettable example of ‘official Washington’ missing the point.”

The ISG has one benefit, the fact that it's got lots of people talking about how much of a failure the war has been, and that the military must, no matter what, change its strategy. Otherwise, the ISG Report fails completely in recommending the only solution: immediate retreat.

Retreat in this case would not be cowardly, but instead be a mature, humanistic response to the desperate needs of a nation of people who never invited us in and, after patiently waiting for us to leave, now realize that they can only get us to listen to them by shooting our soldiers.