Iraq Study Group calls for diplomacy, end of US combat role by 2008

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Deutsche Presse Agentur/RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday December 6, 2006

President George W. Bush was presented at the White House today with the final version of the Iraq Study Group report. The report calls on the United States to work with Iraq's neighbors to promote stability in the country, while preparing to remove US troops from their combat role by 2008.

"The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating," the report says. "There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved."

Presented with a high-level panel's "very tough" assessment on Iraq, US President George W Bush pledged Wednesday to take action in response to its proposals. The recommendations, to be made public later Wednesday, were expected to propose a gradual withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq and US diplomatic overtures to Iran and Syria - countries Bush views as part of the problem in Iraq.

Bush received the highly anticipated report at the White House from a group of US political heavyweights co-led by James Baker III, who served his father as secretary of state.

"This report gives a very tough assessment of the situation in Iraq," Bush said. "It is a report that brings some really very interesting proposals. And we will take every proposal seriously and we will act in a timely fashion."

Yet Bush, who has vowed to fight until victory in Iraq, said Wednesday he was unlikely to accept all of the recommendations, drafted in nearly eight months of secretive deliberations.

The report's executive summary called for an immediate "diplomatic offensive to build an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region. This diplomatic effort should include every country that has an interest in avoiding a chaotic Iraq, including all of Iraq's neighbors." The importance of the role to be played by Iran and Syria was emphasized, and the report's authors identified a relationship between the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations and the situation in Iraq.

The ISG also concluded that the main mission of US forces in Iraq "should evolve to one of supporting the Iraqi army, which would take over primary responsibility for combat operations. 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." The authors concluded that this move should be made regardless of the progress made by Iraq's political leadership in improving the governance and security of the country on its own.

Bush aides have rejected speculation that the report will offer a fig-leaf for a retreat from Iraq, where months of gruesome sectarian killings and a fractious government have blighted US hopes for a stable democracy.

Bush will weigh the 10-member panel's ideas as part of a broader review of strategy in Iraq, which includes an assessment by US military commanders, the White House said.

Bush, while saying he is open to fresh ideas, staunchly refuses to set a timetable for a US pullout and has held tight to his goal of an Iraq that can "sustain, govern and defend itself."

Bush has kept his distance from Baker, a Texas lawyer, veteran diplomat and Washington power broker who served in the cabinet of Bush's father.

Baker, 76, masterminded US diplomacy before the 1990-91 US-led war that ousted Iraqi forces from Kuwait, and has never regretted the decision at the time to leave Saddam Hussein in power.

The panel, co-chaired by Democratic ex-congressman and foreign policy expert Lee Hamilton, was launched in March by lawmakers from both parties, partly reflecting Republican fears that the war in Iraq and Bush's low approval ratings could help the Democratic Party win the presidency in 2008.

Baker warned that there are no easy solutions.

"Expectations are totally out of control," he told the Houston Chronicle daily last week. "There is no magic formula for our difficulties in Iraq."

FULL REPORT CAN BE ACCESSED IN PDF FILE AT THIS LINK