Both Ivo Daalder, Matt Yglesias, and Steve Benen observe that the qualifier “subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground… (xvi)” is a rather gaping loophole in the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.
So it is. But it also makes the report’s recommendations immune to falsification, which is the chief goal of any of these reports. If you’re going to assemble a group of distinguished people to issue definitive pronouncements on something that most of them know nothing about, you can’t very well expect them to put their reputations on the line. Otherwise, how will they get invited to join the next blue ribbon commission?
