Iraq Study Group: Change Iraq strategy now

[Duppers]

Story Highlights• Report calls for a "diplomatic offensive," end U.S. troop combat role by '08
• U.S. troop mission should evolve to role of supporting Iraqi Army
• Iraqi government needs to show progress or risk cuts in U.S. aid
• Bush, Congress must cooperate or "policy is doomed to failure"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Iraq Study Group's report given to President Bush on Wednesday says the United States needs to change its strategy to tackle the "grave and deteriorating" situation in Iraq.

Failure to halt the crisis could bring severe consequences to Iraq, the broader region and the United States, the bipartisan panel warned in a report handed to Bush at the White House.

Although panel co-chairs James Baker and Lee Hamilton said in an introductory letter to the report there is no "magic formula to solve the problems of Iraq," the report calls for a "diplomatic offensive" and changing the role of U.S. troops from a combat to an advisory role. (View the complete report -- PDF)

"The current approach is not working and the ability of the United States to influence events is diminishing," Hamilton said in presenting the report. "Our ship of state has hit rough waters. It must now chart a new way forward."

The group's co-chair, said, however, that "not all options have been exhausted."

Among the group's most important recommendations: a change in the primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq that will allow the United States to move forces out responsibly; prompt action by the Iraqi government to achieve milestones, particularly reconciliation; and new diplomatic actions in Iraq and in the region.

Former Secretary of State James Baker and co-chair with Hamilton, said later in the news conference: "We do not recommend a stay-the-course solution. In our opinion, that approach is no longer viable."

The report suggests: "By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq."

"At that time, U.S. combat forces in Iraq could be deployed only in units embedded with Iraqi forces, in rapid-reaction and special operations teams and in training, equipping, advising, force protection and search and rescue."

While not recommending a timetable for withdrawal, the report says "the United States must not make an open-ended commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in Iraq."

The report warns of dire consequences, both at home and abroad, if the U.S. fails to take action.

"If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences could be severe. A slide toward chaos could trigger the collapse of Iraq's government and a humanitarian catastrophe. Neighboring countries could intervene. Sunni-Shia clashes could spread. Al Qaeda could win a propaganda victory and expand its base of operations. The global standing of the United States could be diminished. Americans could become more polarized," the report says.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/06/iraq.study.group/index.html


Bush, Congress MUST cooperate or "policy is doomed to failure" WOW!!

[JudyM]

1. Iraq Report Sees "grave and deteriorating" crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. troops should begin withdrawing from combat and Washington should launch a diplomatic and political push to halt a "grave and deteriorating" crisis in Iraq, a high-level panel studying the war said on Wednesday.

President Bush said he would take the highly-anticipated report "very seriously" after meeting with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, but the White House has made clear he will not be bound by its conclusions and has begun its own review of Iraq policy.

"The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating," the five Republicans and five Democrats in the group said in the report. "There is no magic formula to solve the problems of Iraq," the report, to be released formally at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT), added.

"Our most important recommendations call for new and enhanced diplomatic and political efforts in Iraq and the region and a change in the primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq that will enable the United States to begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly," the report said.

(snip)

The report also called for the United States to engage with Iran and Syria, whom U.S. officials accuse of fomenting the insurgency in Iraq, in an effort to stabilize the country. The White House has resisted such talks.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-12-06T151855Z_01_COL153081_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&src=120606_1125_TOPSTORY_iraq_in_grave_crisis
---------------------

{Notably, in the news conference, Leon Panetta emphasized that the war has divided the country and "we have made a terrible commitment in Iraq in terms of both blood and (money)."}

[maddezmom]

2. Hi JudyM

You forgot the link. :hi:

On edit....Paraphrasing, Leon P. also said the country needs to come together if we're at war. :eyes:

[JudyM]

4. got it now - thanks!

[maddezmom]

5. thanks...as for Leon P

I was rather disgusted at some of his remarks, hope there is a transcript somewhere soon.

[Avalux]

3. Blah blah blah!!!

All words; nothing new. The Iraq Study Group and their "plan" is of pure political design to salvage the Bush Administration and hogtie the incoming Congress. Nothing will change; stall tactics is all.

[brooklynite]

6. Download the full report here...

http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/index.html

[Duppers]

9. Wow, it's 160 paged pdf file.

Thanks, brooklynite. I don't have time to read it now though.

[Jacobin]

7. These conclusions might have been newsworthy 2 years ago

This 'report' is now nothing but a condemnation of the idiocy in historical terms.

Everyone knows its forked up. Retreating by the first quarter of 2008 is not simply an option, it will be mandated to keep all our troops from being consumed in the coming holocaust...and it should be sooner than 2008

[nradisic]

8. ISG determined that...

George Bush and the GOP are a bunch of morons! Everything form the War in Iraq to the nasty partisnaship has been their doing. I hope that this convinces the nation that the GOP needs to be marginalized. They hate government. Why should they ever again be allowed to govern? That is an oxymoron in itself.

[kenny blankenship]

10. 3 bullet points of pure bullshit

U.S. troop mission should evolve to role of supporting Iraqi Army
That is simply a restatement of the failed policy already in place. DON'T YOU THINK THEY WOULD DO THAT IF THEY COULD??? They'd love nothing more than to shift all the casualties to the Iraqi Army. Problem is the Iraqi Army is made up of one half militia infiltrators and one half underpaid cowards (or men otherwise unmotivated to die for something they don't believe is worth dying for.) They have been trained and trained and equipped and trained and equipped--and yet wherever there is fighting to do they prove unable or unwilling. That is not happening because they haven't been told how important it is for them to come together as a country and as an armed force, it's happening because the rifts within the Iraqi nationality are opening up along religious and ethnic lines and getting wider. The rifts which produce sectarian violence exist in the same quality and degree within the Iraqi Army. If it is ever ordered into battle against one side or another in a serious way, we will probably see the Iraqi Army split and begin to fight itself in (yet another manifestation of) the Iraqi Civil War.

Iraqi government needs to show progress or risk cuts in U.S. aid
This is such a howler. If the gov't doesn't show progress in dealing with problem areas like disarming the militias then we will sternly furrow our brows, pound our desks with our fists to show we mean what wer're about to say, and then cut the funding of the Iraqi gov't, thus destroying its already feeble ability to act like the gov't of Iraq. Oh yeah that will get results. Really brilliant stuff this is!

Bush, Congress must cooperate or "policy is doomed to failure"
Congress has given him everything he's asked for. Bush, however, is under no obligation to take Congressional advice. There is practically nothing Congress can do to shape the war policy. Oversight of a war means jack squat. They can throw money at Bush and hope he'll refrain from impugning their patriotism (vain hope but they cling to it anyway) or they can throw one of two very clumsy and dangerous levers to end the war: impeach him or defund the war. Since Bush isn't going to adopt the position that there are two coequal Commanders in Chief in the running of a war, the cooperation will remain as it has been: an utterly one sided "cooperation" which more aptly be called DICTATORSHIP. What I wonder was the point of including this item in the list of desiderata if not to appeal for an extension of the dictatorship that has strangled this once free nation?

[Eugene]

11. Reuters: Saudi urges U.S. not to leave Iraq quickly

Saudi urges U.S. not to leave Iraq quickly
06 Dec 2006 20:50:02 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States on
Wednesday urged America not to suddenly withdraw troops from Iraq and to support
the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as the best hope for stability.

"Just picking and leaving is going to create a huge vacuum," said Prince Turki
al-Faisal, hours after the high-level bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended the
United States should begin to withdraw forces and launch a diplomatic push, including
Iran and Syria, to avoid chaos in Iraq.

"It would be inadvisable in the extreme for the U.S. simply to pack up its forces
and withdraw," Turki said at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. "The U.S. must
underline its support for the Maliki government because there is no other game in town."

-snip-

He said the Saudi government fired Nawaf Obaid, a security consultant, after he wrote
a Washington Post commentary suggesting that if U.S. troops left Iraq, Saudi Arabia
would step in to protect the Iraqi Sunnis from Shi'ite-dominated Iran.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06450495.htm

[truthisfreedom]

12. "Americans could become more polarized." R-i-i-i-ight. Heaven forbid Americans

are affected by the Iraq war.

I think that phrase is code for "rethugs could be out of a job permanently."

[SKKY]

13. They certainly have a firm grasp on the obvious, don't they?