In the December 7 New York Post, columnist Ralph Peters responded to the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) by comparing ISG co-chair and former Secretary of State James Baker (R) to the biblical figure Pontius Pilate, who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Peters wrote, “The difference is that Pilate just wanted to wash his hands of an annoyance, while Baker would wash his hands in the blood of our troops.” Peters claimed: “Baker resembles Pontius Pilate in wanting those bedeviling local problems to go away and in imagining that, by caving in to unjust local powerbrokers, he can safeguard the empire's interests.”

From Ralph Peters' December 7 New York Post column:

In the end, the biblical figure who best reflects Jim Baker doesn't come from the Nativity sequence, but from the end of the Gospels: Baker resembles Pontius Pilate in wanting those bedeviling local problems to go away and in imagining that, by caving in to unjust local powerbrokers, he can safeguard the empire's interests.

The difference is that Pilate just wanted to wash his hands of an annoyance, while Baker would wash his hands in the blood of our troops.