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The Iraq Study Group's book is a slim volume: 142 pages, only 96 if you ignore the appendices. The paperback version could easily slip into a Christmas stocking. We were all surprised to see how small it was.
Take a gander at the picture on the left. At the far left, the smallest volume, that's the Iraq Study Group book; it's about a half inch thick. Next: the report of the 9/11 Commission. It's 1.5 inches thick. (And, yes, we remember it was nominated for a National Book Award.) Third from the left, the Tower Commission Report on Iran Contra: two volumes totaling two inches. What about the Clinton investigation? When you add up the Starr Report and the Committee on the Judiciary's report, we're talking nine inches of prose. (And you can't even read parts of it aloud at a family gathering.)
Photo caption: Four recent commission reports from the NBC News Washington library. Photo by Daily Nightly editor Rob Merrill.
Sales of the Iraq Study Group report on Amazon.com seem to be doing well... yes, sales. Although it's available free on the Internet, you too can own this volume for less than a bucket of chicken. It was holding steady on the Amazon list at No. 26, jumped up to No. 18, and has dropped a bit to No. 22 at this writing.
Now, one of the good things about forking over your money for a book that's available for free, is that the publisher says that a portion of the proceeds will go to the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit group that helps military families.
Author's note: None of the measurements of the aforementioned books is meant to cast any aspersions on the various committees' investigative work or their editing skills.
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Early Nightly is up
Lisa of Albuquerque....we've done some positive stories on what's happened in Iraq, but there's always room for more. I'll have to send this back out to readers of our blog...if you have specific stories to recommend, send them our way. We've heard there's a great country-western place for soldiers to go to on Saturday nights in Baghdad...so if you hear a great story...keep us in mind! Thanks
Gena Fitzgerald, Senior Producer, NBC News Washington (Sent Dec 8, 2006 11:48:52 AM)
Brian Williams and the Staff: Maybe you have had this request before...maybe not. Can you please do what NO OTHER news program provides? That is, to regularly report something about the IRAQ war that is positive along with all the news that is negative? I am sure there are stories to tell...schools being built, water systems being repaired, etc. Maybe these things are small, but I am sure that our soldiers are doing things that make peoples lives better in some way! I am not asking for sappy sweet stuff...just something to balance all the bad news. Consider it my Christmas wish!
Lisa, Albuquerque, New Mexico (Sent Dec 7, 2006 7:47:04 PM)
Collin Powell had his chance to speak up and stop the Plame leak media cirus before it started. I could care less what he has to say now.
(Sent Dec 7, 2006 1:31:11 PM)
Any of that stack of stuff from the Clinton era deal with the Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac corruption? I didn't pay very close attention to the news in the 90s. Well nothing like I do now. For me anything to do with Clinton was like Michael Jackson, or OJ I just changed the channel.
Dave, Tn (Sent Dec 7, 2006 1:21:48 PM)
I seem to recall Tony Snow saying something about not wanting to grasp the Tar Baby which is Iraq.That said, if I remember my southern stories, the Tar Baby was an invesntion By Brer Fox to catch Brer Rabbit. It seems that Brer Bush instead grasped the Tar Baby with some modicum of explanation which baffles to this day. He is still espousing a democratic Iraq saying that this process is "noble." To me, it sounds like someone grasping a tarry mess and attempting to 'splain it to me,Lucy! Is it me or is W. looking an awful bit like Forest Gump! I guess it is true: Stupid is as stupid does,ay Mr. Bush? Tar looks very good on you!
Dave of Old (Sent Dec 7, 2006 12:09:32 PM)
HOW MANY U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL WERE KILLED/MAIMED DURING THE LONG DAYS THAT IT TOOK THE ISG TO COMPLETE ITS REPORT!? HOW MANY MORE WILL DIE WHILE THE DUNDERHEADS IN THE WHITE HOUSE TRY TO WIGGLE OUT FROM UNDER THIS DAMNING REPORT? THE ISG REPORT NEEDED TO INCLUDE JUST FOUR WORDS: "GET OUT, IMPEACH W." AN APPENDIX SHOULD READ: "BRING BACK COLIN POWELL."
BILL ROSELLE, THIENSVILLE, WI (Sent Dec 7, 2006 11:53:09 AM)
The FREE PRESS in America shares just as much blame in this Iraqi mess as does this Administration...For the simple fact of NOT asking the Bush Administration TOUGH questions BEFORE we got to this position in this "War On Terror"...
Dino Crawley, Anchorage, Alaska (Sent Dec 7, 2006 11:05:17 AM)
Yeah, the size of the book tell its quality.
I was a bit shock at first and pleased with ISG report. Make it concise and readable. Bravo to ISG.
Mr. Rainman, Baltimore, MD (Sent Dec 7, 2006 8:40:33 AM)
I think there is something very telling about the picture above...and something very wrong with it.
Corinna, Manzanita, OR (Sent Dec 7, 2006 12:52:51 AM)
If the Bush administration has not taught us something important, we are very stupid.
(Sent Dec 6, 2006 10:39:47 PM)
Sometimes comparisons tell insightful stories, but this one, tragic as it is, tells, by its omissions, the straight jacket that the country as a whole is in: it really does not want to hear the obvious. After all, everything that it says, has already been said; so, why bother repeating the obvious.However, putting the obvious aside, there remains the bleak suggestion that the Bush administration’s options are few, which leaves the President not only cornered, but screams at the lonely corridor that Mr. Bush must now walk.
Balkrishna Naipaul, St. Catharines, Ontario, Cananda (Sent Dec 6, 2006 10:16:40 PM)
I can't think of another report that one can call both refreshing and depressing. Refreshing because any realistic assessment at this point is bracing. Depressing because the reality is an ongoing disaster. The fact that Iraq would become a bloody quagmire was utterly predictable. That's beyond depressing - it's enfuriating. Even worse, we have to suffer two more years of this "decider". God help us, and our troops.
Mark Klein, Los Angeles, CA (Sent Dec 6, 2006 8:09:26 PM)
Jack & Vicki, sadly I agree with you both. The moral fabric of the nation was in danger when the pres. was an unfaithful husband. But the current president can lie (about so much I cannot list), appoint incompetent cronies to powerful offices which actually matter and affect normal peoples lives, deny global warming while paving the way for SUV's to still be around, use family ties to get out of service in Vietnam while brave (and poor) men went and died, throw 911 in every citizens face when we question his actions/agenda, put us further into enormous debt in this war while pulling money from student financial aid programs, and yet he can just say "Stay the course" for years while thousands of people die and it's ok ?! ?! ?!
To be honest, until this government (with seperation of church and state) stops denying what this war is really about (religion), I don't think I can take the Iraq study seriously...
If you want to be entertained, type "incompetent" "failure" "worst president" into google...
I pray for this nation and world.
(Sent Dec 6, 2006 6:49:11 PM)
The Iraq Study Group is like a painter who has painted himself into a corner. Then the painter must engage a study group to assess his options as to how to extricate himself from his dismal position. So, while he obtains the appropriate time to assess his options in extricating himself, he is nonetheless stuck in said corner. As a result, don't allow George W. Bush to operate a paint brush because the obvious is possible!
Caveat Emptor of Oregon (Sent Dec 6, 2006 6:38:52 PM)
The Iraq Study Group had nothing new to say. We have all known the same thing for the last three years. It was a waste of money (Did the taxpayers pay for it?) and time.
Ann Utica NY (Sent Dec 6, 2006 6:30:03 PM)
The lack of verbosity with respect to the Iraq Study Group only screams very few options that this administration can maneuver within. The Starr Commission report on the other hand is more of a reflection of opinion about the Clinton administration which painted a poor picture. A quagmire is a quagmire, is a quagmire, and on and on which is why the Baker-Hamilton writ is so succinct. It is not like being able to go to the moon in order to right the situation properly. When the boat of state is not within its operational "gimbels", there is only such that can right that boat and this is why the book is so small: not very much can be done! Hence, a small book!
Simpliticus (Sent Dec 6, 2006 5:49:18 PM)
Clinton messed up his personal life and the GOP spent $40 million in taxpayer dollars investigating and impeaching him in what turned out to be a fruitless endaevor.
Bush messed up our country starting an illegal and unnecessary war that's already cost us over $300 billion dollars with no end in sight. But since his party controlled Congress, he has so far got away with it with little more than bad poll numbers and a soft investigation by his Daddy's handlers.
Jack, Scottsdale, AZ (Sent Dec 6, 2006 5:37:41 PM)
An elegant, disgusting statement about politics in our country.
Vicki, Peoria IL (Sent Dec 6, 2006 5:14:27 PM)
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