Desert Storm Legacy

Austin Bay wonders whether James Baker learned anything from the the error made by the Bush I Administration in 1991, when it defeated Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War but then allowed him to stay in power.

Interestingly, the first President Bush has been condemned for having failed to "finish the job" in Iraq -- but now the second President Bush is being told that it's time to start a "phased withdrawal" of troops, whether the job is finished, or not. (Oh, and by the way, here's a little refresher course on what prominent Dems -- many now desperately looking for an exit strategy -- had to say about going to war with Iraq just a few short years ago.).

James Baker's Iraq Study Group will be fine if (as Bay suggests) its report produces "a set of policy recommendations palatable to Democrats and Republicans -- in other words, consensus political cover that allows the sober and wise to continue to support Iraq's war for freedom and modernity." But if it's just another way to drive consensus for "peace with honor," it's a disaster in the making.