SENTINEL WATCH January 29, 2007 Issue

PRAYER + UNITY = PROGRESS

DAVE HOHLE

SINCE ITS RELEASE last month, the report of the Iraq Study Group has received a lot of attention. The 84-page document has been praised for its accurate assessment of the situation in Iraq, and at the same time criticized as a consensus document lacking the transcendence of individual genius.

But perhaps the report's value does not lie in its content alone. Maybe it has value simply as an example of an intelligent, honest, earnest attempt to comprehend and chronicle the complex issues—geopolitical, social, economic, and religious—that today bring so much hardship and inharmony to that entire region of the Middle East.

In fact, the Study Group itself may provide a kind of model for the type of agreement and cooperation that helps bring healing. In just eight short months, its ten distinguished members managed to get beyond political and ideological differences to produce a substantial assessment and 79 recommendations. On top of that, they delivered their report without a dissenting opinion. All of which suggests an extraordinary level of unity.