I am more than a little sceptical about this report. I am even more sceptical about the average citizen's point of view in regards to anything about our government and the policies genrated from within. As you are all simply a product of the environment that raised you, do you really expect to be able to "think outside the box" and have a clear and accurate point of view as to what is really happening?
This commision is nothing new and has been brought into the foreground to distract you from the real issues. It is a tool to calm and redirect controversy and opinion in any direction away from the one that has been growing ever since 9/11: That we were wrong to allow this mess to ever happen. This president. This administration. These corporations. This Iraqi civil war. And on and on....
It is foolish to even give this Iraqi Study Group any attention-as they don't have the answers to the questions we are all asking. None of us apear to really stand up and ask the right questions anyways let alone want to hear a true answer. Chances are that when you leave this site, you'll go on your way without giving voice to your neighbors and peers about your concerns and possible solutions.
And so long as you remain quite, we will always have situations that need Study Groups and Commisions

Most of the points made by the Iraq Study Goup are in the various reports of the United States Institute of Peace that were published
before the Iraq war even began and were totally ignored by the Bush administration. None of this is new information.
The ISG report ignores the hugely expensive air war in Iraq that can not be handed over to the Iraqis because they have no air force.
The report also ignores that fact that we have already "trained" over 300,000 Iraqi military and police forces who are apparently unable to
to take over even a fraction of the security operations and creates the impression that these 300,000 will have to be trained all over again.
What happened to the 400,000 man Iraqi army and all the
police forces that we disbanded and which Saddam Hussein used so effectively to control every aspect of Iraqi life for 30 years?
Why do such experts at controlling the "sectarian forces" in Iraq
need to be "trained" by US soldiers who know nothing about
the ethnic and religious rivalries they are dealing with?

The question must be asked: Does a study group make much of a difference? Probably not in light of Bush getting ahold of Blair to discuss other options. It does make you wonder what is going through the minds of the respective members of this study group: I should have gone fishing, What a waste of my time, Is life worth all this effort, Is the president worth all this effort! Kind of like wearing a brown suit and urinating into it: It may feel good but is anybody noticing!

Why is the press not speaking to the "architects" behind this war, Cheney, Wolfawitz, Romesfield about this report? More media attention needs to be brought back to these people. Why are we letting them off the hook? Next it will be Dick Cheney with a "heart problem" saying good-bye to the whitehouse. It's about the Saudi Royal Family and oil, that is the real reason we must "win" the war in Iraq.

We would be wise to heed the advise about America's stature in the world as the typical duration of a "great civilization" is two hundred years, and we are 25% past that. Bush Sr. made the right call after removing Iraq from Kuwait in the early 80's. He accomplished his mission and pulled back. We should have gotten Saddam out and gotten out ourselves, and not occupied Baghdad. Our principal failure was ignorance to the Muslim culture and how we should proceed to win the hearts and minds - not over to democracy per se, but a freedom they haven't known under Saddam. As a Republican, an American, I plead with our administration to do as Abraham Lincoln did - surround yourself with the smartest, most well-read students of military and world history, and understand while it is noble to eliminate tyranny, we must quickly move to save lives, and the Iraqi future, and indeed the Middle East from igniting into far greater violence.

It is time for America to give up Manifest Destiny. America is not the new Israel and we are not the new Israelites commissioned by God to spread the gospel of Americanism to other nations via the military. Other nations tried their own versions of Manifest Destiny and failed; America will fail also. America must learn to mind its own business and quit meddling in other countries' affairs.

I believe Baker and Hamilton and the other members of the Study Group have done well in their assignment. From what I have heard and read from the report, much of it appears to be on track and worth pursuing. I hope the American people speak out and our elected representatives listen. Our military is in harms way. I certainly do not want to hear any bickering or observe any more finger pointing from our leadership, regardless of party or affiliation. Let's leave the egos aside and get down to the business at hand. Lets be honest with one another and look ahead, not behind.

The study group was necessary to redeem our
country's biggest folly since Vietnam. Most
Presidents nearing the end of their official
influence over the country do not wish to be
remembered in a negative fashion. As I see it,
this is a very public statement of what has to
be done in a very "dire" situation. It gives
the public some hope that this President has
finally heard the voice of the people about
the expenditure of American lives, Iraqi lives
and wealth for the failed policies of Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Cheney. I see it as a final attempt
to retrieve us from a descent into hell.

The Iraq study group recommendations sound a lot like 'stay the course' to me. And why do we always get bi-partisan reports, done by partisans? I would have liked for this to have been a non-partisan Iraq study group.

I just heard Tony Snow's comments to David Gregory. To hear Tony tell it the Study Group has said the same thing that Bush has been saying. I notice Tony forgot the selective information about how bad it is in Iraq. Bush made it sound positive yet all hell is breaking out and has been for a long time. I pray for the families of the dead soldiers who's families believed Bush's lies as he could have saved the soldiers lives but did nothing but stay the course.

Finished reading the report; can it be that simple and straightforward? I’m a sixty-one year old woman with only a working class education and I understood every recommendation and it all makes sense to me. What the heck has been going on in Iraq? If our most intelligent scholars and leaders can define a strategy in less than 150 pages, why wasn’t this report generated earlier and why haven’t our elected officials enlisted help before? All I can think about are the lives lost, both military and civilian and the horror of the news everyday from Iraq. President Bush take heed and follow through with the recommendations in the report.

As the Study Group has made it's recommendation the President will either follow the will of the people or stay the course. As all the talking is going on our soldiers are dying like sitting ducks. Listening to Tony Snow nothing will change but more talk and more soldier dying. Iran and Syria will step forward and control the problem. Cheney will again have to report to the Saudi King what went wrong with the plan. The President hasn't worked for the American people from the first day he took the office so I don't see him changing that now. To much money involved and promises that have to be filled. In some ways the Bush Administration is in a no win situation because those backroom deals are all international not just with the big business here in the United States. War profiteering is making alot of money for alot of people no one wants that to stop right now.

Bipartisan study group now that sounds politically correct, I guess if they had called it the Iraq study group no one would have known what political group Baker or Hamilton belong to or even bothered to read the report. Everyone was bashing Snow for lying, they need to remember he is only the President's mouth piece and he gets paid for saying what is dictated. That being said I guess they will have to appoint another study group now to study what the Bipartisan group reported. Amazing 10 more soldiers died today in insurgent violence and the most important thing was the meeting between President Bush and the Bipartisan study group. You hear so many calling for impeachment and others saying the President has not committed an impeachable offense. Let's see a group Iraqi's attempted the overthrow or elimination of Saddam and he had his army slaughter thousands in retaliation for that act. He placed on trial and found guilty and sentenced to death for his crime against the Iraqi people. Comparison! Attempted or planned elimination of Bush senior by Saddam but failed but President George W. Bush retaliated and sent the U.S. military into Iraq killing thousands. He justified this with bad intelligence, no WMD's, and terrorist which came to Iraq after we defeated Saddam. Now someone please explain to me the difference. How anyone can expain this away by saying "Whoops!" "We made a mistake but now that we've killed all these innocent people and totally destroyed their country we have to finish the job."

Right now is not the time to debate whether this Study Group was a success or failure. Only time can give us that answer - and the answer is in the lap of the president right now. He would be wise to take its recommendation. "Standing on principle" is a noble thing to do, as long as that principle is not to hold the mirage as reality.