What would we do without study groups?

There's a fast and bitter wind rattling the 100-year-old windows of this old Victorian by the Hudson; the digital clock on my iMac reads 11:57 PM.

It's been a long day. Twelve-hours-mostly-at-my-desk long. I'm pooped. Another hour and it's off to sleep.

Was anybody really surprised by the Iraq Study Group report this week? Situation nearly unsalvageable, one last chance, talk to Iran, offer Syria the Golan, light a match and get out by 2008.

Islamic fanatics run amok throughout the Middle East and the Iraq Study Group wants America to play the lovable loser.



FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE:

Well, it looks like the Clintons are on board for talks with Iran, a country known to be providing material for IEDs the likes of which killed Staten Island's own Sgt. Yevgeniy Ryndych in Iraq on Wednesday, the day the ISG report was released and the day before a Fed Ex package containing an engagement ring for his fiancee was to arrive.

About the latest round of "if not out of Iraq now then soon, and real soon," Sgt. Ryndych's younger brother, Ivan, yesterday said this to the New York Post:

"To me, it makes no sense . . . If you get out now, it would be telling the whole world you left and didn't succeed in anything."

Meanwhile, Dubya is sounding just the way I thought he would in these
remarks he made at a press conference yesterday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair:

"I understand how hard it is to prevail. But I also want the American people to understand that if we were to fail - and one way to assure failure is just to quit, is not to adjust, and say it's just not worth it - that failed policy will come to hurt generations of Americans in the future."

Reminds me of words written here not too long ago.