"About as bad as advertised," and "The emporer has no clothes," are a couple of the reactions I have seen so far to the Iraq Study Group report issued by James Baker and Lee Hamilton yesterday.

Things may be going pretty poorly in Iraq, but it seems absurd to me that the Baker/Hamilton group actually contemplates approaching some of our most steadfast enemies for help out of the mess in Iraq, with the inducement being a renewed effort at a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord.

This report is as lackluster as it was expected to be, with no profound conclusions, and nothing to add to what a great many Americans already know: The situation in Iraq currently is dire, but an immediate pullout of U.S. troops prior to 2008 is not advisable or recommended. Americans did not need the Baker/Hamilton report to tell them what a large number of them have already concluded.