No Magic Bullet

A similar report of ISG discord came out in the Wash Times earlier this week.

The problem facing Gates is that the options being considered may already be obsolete. The conditions on the ground in Iraq are deteriorating so rapidly that even the Baker commission is struggling to keep up, several well-placed national-security sources told TIME.

Although Baker has said the commission will develop its proposals by consensus, there were signs last week that the group had hit some speed bumps. Sources say renewed pressure from both political flanks in the U.S. is making it difficult for the commission's center to hold....."The impulse toward consensus has diminished somewhat," a close panel observer told TIME. "Everything that is happening--the election, the postelection, the situation in Baghdad--makes it more difficult."

Perhaps this is just the ISG lowering expectations as the NYTimes wrote about yesterday, but what happens if the ISG comes back with a mushy/middling report?

Also: Norah O'Donnell repeats what's become conventional wisdom, that the Pentagon's Iraq strategy review is primarily designed to counterbalance anything not liked in the ISG report.