look who’s not invited to talk to the Iraq Study Group

update November 15:This story turns out to have been total bullshit. Today’s New York Timesreports that Albright, Christopher, and Clinton, among others supposedly not on the list, talked to the ISG.

Quite a list:

1. Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad, perhaps the one U.S. official who has addressed the Iraq debacle with some candor and foresight — and certainly the one official history will look kindly upon.

2. John McCain, Chuck Hagel, and John Kerry, three of the U.S. Senate’s most notable veterans of combat. This one is mind blowing.

3. Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, two key architects of the war, one a former dean of one of the most prestigious IR schools in the country.

4. Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher. The views of Team Clinton don’t appear very welcome.

Bush1Clinton5. Henry Kissinger, the dean of the foreign-policy establishment.

6. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The former commanders in chief (one of whom actually won a war and flew 58 combat missions in WWII) remain on the sidelines.

7. Fouad Ajami, Shibley Telhami, Bernard Lewis, Ray Takeyh, Kanan Makiya, and other notable scholars on the Middle East. This commission appears as isolated from the academy as the Bush administration is.