AP: Study Authors Defend Iraq Strategy Plan

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Study Authors Defend Iraq Strategy Plan

The Associated Press
Sunday, December 10, 2006; 11:12 AM

WASHINGTON -- Leaders of a bipartisan panel on Iraq defended their call
for a new war strategy Sunday, saying it embraces President Bush's goal
of an Iraq government that can defend and sustain itself.

In the Sunday talk shows, former GOP Secretary of State James A. Baker III
and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton said their recommendations for a
more robust regional diplomacy was the best approach to promote peace
and stability in the region.

"We're not going to win this war militarily; we're going to win it politically,"
Baker said. "There must be a political reconciliation among the warring
factions in Iraq or we're going to continue to have major league problems."

-snip-

Bush has already been publicly cool to the panel's key proposals _ which
called for direct engagement with Iran and Syria and a pullback of all
American combat brigades by early 2008 _ and has suggested the Baker-
Hamilton plan falls short of a full victory.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000258.html