O.K.

We've now have given a really thorough read, and its quite something.

Don't listen to the partisans on either extreme. Their time has (has to!) pass. This is a largely ideology free assesment that has -- clearly -- as its first and fundamental objective to insert a major wake-up call into the partisan and bitter discussion of Iraq and reach the American people (oh, them) with a somber and dead-serious message: In Iraq, we face a catastrophe of monumental proportion.

As mentioned in a quick post yesterday, the tone itself is the most striking thing about the report. Only a fool -- or someone looking to shoot partisans arrows or throw partisan flowers -- would take the recommendation very seriously. Other have made and will continue to make every one of them. They are there for two reasons: because they must be, and because they show that there are MANY MANY things that can or could have been done to address the crisis. A QED cri de couer for dynamic, desperate action.