WASHINGTON, Oct 16: A commission backed by President George W. Bush that is exploring US options in Iraq intends to propose significant changes in the administration’s strategy by early next year, members say.
Two options under consideration would represent reversals of the US policy: withdrawing American troops in phases, and bringing neighbouring Iran and Syria into a joint effort to stop the fighting.
While it weighs alternatives, the 10-member commission, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, has agreed on one principle.
“It’s not going to be ‘stay the course,’” one participant said. “The bottom line is, (the current US policy) isn’t working…. There’s got to be another way.”
If the panel recommends overhauling Bush’s approach to Iraq, it could give a boost not only to critics of the current policy but also to officials in the administration who have argued for broad changes.
“There’ll probably be some things in our report that the administration might not like,” Baker said in a television interview last week.
It’s unclear how willing Bush is to change his strategy, which focuses on improving security in Baghdad, training Iraqi security forces and pressing the Iraqi government to forge a political agreement among warring factions.
Progress on all those fronts has been slow, and Bush last week said he was open to ideas.
“My attitude is: Don’t do what you’re doing if it’s not working — change,” Bush said at a news conference.
When the panel was formed in March, some administration officials hoped it would produce a bipartisan endorsement of the existing policy. But as violence in Iraq has worsened, more Republicans in Congress — and privately some administration officials — have become receptive to alternatives.
The Baker panel, called the Iraq Study Group, was formed in response to a proposal by members of Congress. Nevertheless, Baker sought — and won — Bush’s endorsement.
Other members include former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, who also served as co-chairman of the commission investigating the Sept 11 terrorist attacks; retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; former Rep. Leon E. Panetta, a California Democrat who was President Clinton’s chief of staff; and former CIA Director Robert M. Gates.
At its most recent closed-door meetings, the commission focused on two options drafted by experts outside the government.
One, titled “stability first,” calls for continuing to try to stabilise Baghdad, boosting efforts to entice insurgents into politics and bringing Iran and Syria into plans to end the fighting.
The other, called “redeploy and contain,” goes further. It calls for a gradual, phased withdrawal of American troops to bases outside Iraq where they would be available for strikes against terrorist organisations anywhere in the region.
The experts also prepared an option called “stay the course, redefine the mission,” and an alternative urging a quick US withdrawal, but the panel appeared less interested in those plans, participants said.
The options were first reported last week by the New York Sun.
Baker and other commission members refused to confirm the substance of the options and emphasised that the panel had made no decisions. But Baker signalled the thrust of the panel’s deliberations in several television interviews last week.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service