Iraq panel to Bush: dangerous, get out

This could allow all United States combat brigades “not necessary for force protection” to be out of Iraq by the first quarter of 2008, the Iraq Study Group’s report said.

The panel studying the war in Iraq presented its findings this morning to President Bush, who said he would take their ideas “very seriously” and act on them “in a timely fashion,” and then to Congressional leaders.

The report, by a 10-member commission headed by former Secretary of State James A Baker 3d and former Representative Lee Hamilton of Indiana, urges a commitment by the United States to work with Iran, Syria and other nations to bring stability to the region.

“We do not recommend a stay-the-course solution,” Baker said pointedly at a question-answer session accompanying the report’s release. “In our opinion, that is no longer viable.” Those remarks were sure to be interpreted, at least by administration critics, as a rebuke to President Bush.

But the White House could point to the commission’s refusal to advocate a quick withdrawal of American troops, an event that Hamilton said could touch off “a bloodbath” and a wider regional conflict.

Hamilton urged administration officials and lawmakers to tackle the study group’s recommendations quickly, or else, “Events in Iraq could overtake what we recommend.”

The executive summary of the report declares that its two main recommendations are “for new and enhanced diplomatic and political efforts in Iraq and the region, and a change in the primary mission of US forces in Iraq that will enable the United States to begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly.” American forces would remain after 2008, in units embedded with or otherwise supporting Iraqi troops, and in rapid reaction and special operations forces, the panel said.

But it warned that “the most important questions about Iraq’s future are now the responsibility of the Iraqis.”

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