Just did a conference call about the Iraq Study Group

I just did a blogger conference call about the Iraq Study Group findings with former Republican Senator Simpson and former Democratic Secretary of Defense Perry.

Not surprisingly, no real news was broken. I do get the sense that the Study Group never really considered the possibility that Iraq is already lost. Simpson and Perry seemed almost surprised when I suggested that they convince me that Iraq isn't already dead. I fear that it's still not PC to suggest in polite company that the war is over, we lost. And I fear just as much that the Study Group may not have seriously considered this possibility - the proposition that nothing we do will matter in the end, and that as bad as it sounds, the only solution is to get out now. Yeah, leaving sucks - but staying sucks worse.

As an aside, Simpson is an absolute hoot. He was actually a moderate, in some ways, during his final days in the Senate - even went to speak at a Matthew Shepard memorial that was held on the Capitol grounds following Shepard's death in 1998 (Simpson was heckled at the time, but in 1998 it said something that a Republican Senator (or former Senator, I believe, by that time) would attend such an event at all.) Simpson has that sense of humor that Washington used to be all about - being able to make funny political barbs back and forth, but still remain charming and decent even while disagreeing with you. It's the way Washington used to be.