The Iraq Study Group Report (#278, Topic P)

Yesterday, the long-awaited report by a 10-member bipartisan Iraq Study Group was released. The project is of interest to me from several perspectives. One, as a publisher, I am impressed by the speed at which this report was published and made available to the public -- the manuscript was turned over to a commercial publisher Friday, 12/1; a 96-page book was printed up barely 3 days later, 12/4; copies were sent to members of the Study Group (as well as to bookstores) the following day, 12/5; the day following, yesterday, 12/6, at 9 am, a copy signed by all 10 members was hand-delivered to President George W. Bush; an hour later, the embargo to bookstores not to sell this title was lifted; a few hours later, there were only Sold Out signs at these bookstores. (A bookstore near the White House had ordered 300 copies, received only 75 copies, all spoken for by members of the media.) Two, again as a publisher, I am impressed by the general readership's tremendous interest in this report, as evidenced by these Sold Out signs. (The book sells for $10.95, with the commercial publisher undertaking the project as a public service -- all profits would be donated.) Three, I am impressed by the important role played by the internet -- a non-profit organization managed to make contents of this report available at its website -- there were 400,000 downloads the very first day (several million downloads were anticipated in the next few days). Four, I appreciate the valuable role played by the print media. Our local newspaper, Washington Post, has 7 or 8 pages' worth of coverage in today's edition -- barely 20hours after the embargo was lifted. It gives the names and background of this blue-ribbon Study Group (co-chaired by James A Baker III, secretary of state in the George H W Bush adminsitration, and Lee H. Hamilton, formerly Democratic chairman of the House International Relations Committee); it reproduces the study's executive summary in its entirety (it begins with"The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating."); it summarizes the report's 49 recommendations, complete with a regional map and a key-word milestones in tabular form; and it gives several human-interest stories. Members of the Study Group, after delivering the report to the president, held a news conference. To a question on how the president reacted to the recommendations, Lawrence Eagleburger, another former secretary of state, began with "His reaction was, 'Where is my drink?'", continuing with "He was a little loaded. It was early in the morning, too, you know." Today, I read, in a free financial service, the president was quoted as saying that, while many Washington reports were unread, he did read the Study Group's report. I missed seeing this very quote as a clip on TV, but I did see a variation of that, this evening over BBC, when the president held a joint press conference with British premier Tony Blair, visiting him for the very purpose of discussing this very report. The BBC clip presents the president saying "I read the report," along with a big smile on his face, giving one the impression that he was doing the Study Group a great favor. The accompanying BBC commentary said that the president used the word "interesting" but was otherwise "deliberately vague." Well, we'll see what develops in the next several days.