Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Best Laid Plans

Let's stipulate that the ISG plan is the Best Plan Evah, that if implemented in all of its particulars we would achieve a state of Peak Pony in Iraq within a year. Not that I believe this, of course, but lets stipulate it for sake of discussion.

The problem is that things like this are doomed to failure because not enough consideration is given to the most likely outcome: Bush and Cheney pick and choose their favorite bits and ignore the stuff they don't like.

The point of producing such a plan isn't to produce a plan, it's to try to achieve a desirable outcome. But the magic plan isn't going to be implemented in totality. Instead it will, at best, be implemented piecemeal.

So the right question isn't: Will Plan Points A-Z achieve Peak Pony?

The right question is: Will Plan Points A, J, K, R, U, the ones Bush and Cheney are likely to implement, bring us any closer to Peak Pony?

If the answer is no, then all you've managed to do is continue to enable a set of destructive policies.