ISG co-chairman James Baker went so far as to declare: "I hope we don't treat this like a fruit salad and say, 'I like this, but I don't like that. I like this, but I don't like that.'"

Two of the Nation's foremost national security practitioners - Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and former Clinton Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey - have written an open letter to President Bush urging him not to accept the ISG's recommendations in toto. They note that "people of good will and expertise from both parties can - and in many cases do - come to very different conclusions than those offered by the ISG."

In particular, the two Honorary Co-Chairmen of the Center for Security Policy's bipartisan National Security Advisory Council warn against one of the commission's most controversial and ill-advised ideas: opening direct negotiations with Iran and Syria. Senator Kyl and Director Woolsey wrote:

In our view, opening negotiations with Iran (and Syria) as suggested by the ISG will have several undesirable effects.
• First, such negotiations will legitimate that increasingly dangerous regime and reward its violent and hostile actions against us and our allies. We should rather endeavor to discredit and undermine this regime.
  
• Second, such a course will embolden our enemies who already believe they are sapping our will to resist them.
  
• Third, such an initiative would buy further time for the Iranian mullahs to obtain and prepare to wield weapons of mass destruction.
  
• Fourth, entering into negotiations with Tehran's theocrats will create the illusion that we are taking useful steps to contend with the threat from Iran - when, in fact, we would not be. As a result, other, more effective actions - specifically, steps aimed at encouraging regime change in Iran - will not be pursued.

The Center for Security Policy applauds Messrs. Kyl and Woolsey for conveying in this open letter what is on the minds of millions of Americans: We cannot safely and constructively negotiate with enemies determined to destroy us and should not try to do so with respect to Iran and its colony, Syria. The Center thanks President Bush for his determination to date to reject such counsel and strongly supports him in continuing to do so.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

Hon. George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

You have just received the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) with its 79 recommendations for policy changes, force redeployments and other course corrections with respect to the conflict in Iraq. We believe you have responded properly in welcoming this product -- but reserving judgment as to whether you will accept its suggestions.

This is especially important because of the argument being made in some quarters that, in light of the unanimity exhibited by the distinguished Republican and Democratic members of this commission, the advice offered must be accepted in toto. As leaders of the bipartisan National Security Advisory Council of the Center for Security Policy, we would respectfully suggest that people of good will and expertise from both parties can - and in many cases do - come to very different conclusions than those offered by the ISG.

In particular, members of our Council on both sides of the aisle strongly disagree with what is, arguably, the Baker-Hamilton commission's most strategically portentous recommendation:

The United States should immediately launch a New Diplomatic Offensive to build an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region?.Iraq's neighbors and key states in and outside the region should form a support group to reinforce security and national reconciliation within Iraq, neither of which Iraq can achieve on its own. Given the ability of Iran and Syria to influence events within Iraq and their interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq, the United States should try to engage them constructively.

As the ISG's own report documents, far from being proponents of stability, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its de facto colony, Syria, have gone to great lengths to destabilize the Middle East and, in particular, to prevent Iraq from becoming a free, democratic and peaceful nation.

Americans have been murdered for nearly three decades by Iranian operatives and Tehran's proxies. U.S. and coalition personnel and civilians in Iraq are being slaughtered today by deadly Iranian I.E.D.s (Improvised Explosive Devices) and other weapons provided to like-minded Islamofascist groups.

At the same time, the Iranian regime is working to acquire nuclear arms and long-range ballistic missiles with which to deliver them. When combined with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated threats to "wipe Israel off the map" and bring about "a world without America," we face the prospect that, in due course, the mullahs running Iran will have the means to carry out their apocalyptic intentions.

In our view, opening negotiations with Iran (and Syria) as suggested by the ISG will have several undesirable effects.

First, such negotiations will legitimate that increasingly dangerous regime and reward its violent and hostile actions against us and our allies. We should rather endeavor to discredit and undermine this regime.

Second, such a course will embolden our enemies who already believe they are sapping our will to resist them.

Third, such an initiative would buy further time for the Iranian mullahs to obtain and prepare to wield weapons of mass destruction.

Fourth, entering into negotiations with Tehran's theocrats will create the illusion that we are taking useful steps to contend with the threat from Iran - when, in fact, we would not be. As a result, other, more effective actions - specifically, steps aimed at encouraging regime change in Iran - will not be pursued.

Finally, we trust that you will recognize the necessity of including Israel in any regional conference in which its security and other equities might be a subject of negotiations and that, in such settings and elsewhere, you will continue to adhere to the principle that America supports fellow democracies and eschews appeasement of terrorists and aggressors.

In short, Mr. President, we encourage you to follow your better instincts. By all means, review, assess and, as appropriate, adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and those of the executive branch agencies you have commissioned. We urge you, however, to continue to reject any course of action that would signal that America has become a country that, to quote the scholar Bernard Lewis, is "harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend."

Sincerely,

Senator Jon Kyl

R. James Woolsey