WASHINGTON (AP) -- Success in Iraq would rely more on diplomacy not deadlines under recommendations from a bipartisan commission, robbing many war critics of the impetus they wanted to force a speedy, sizable U.S. troop withdrawal from the battlefield.
The Iraq Study Group's report, expected out Wednesday, urges a gradual reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq and a more aggressive regional diplomacy, but set no timetable, according to officials familiar with the group's deliberations. The report could give President Bush political cover to shift tactics in the increasingly unpopular war.
Goal of all combat troops out by 2008
Some media reports suggested that the commission would recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by early 2008, leaving behind only those troops needed to train and support the Iraqis. The reports described the recommendation as goal rather than a firm timetable.
White House national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley noted on Thursday that the president has solicited a separate in-house review of Iraq policy. Bush probably would make any changes or decisions arising from the various reports in "weeks rather than months," Hadley said.
"It's really going to be when the president is comfortable in his own mind as to where he wants to go" and has coordinated with Iraqi leaders on a "common plan," Hadley said.
Members of Congress seized on the report as their own benchmark for success.
"The fact that they reached a consensus poses a challenge to the Congress to try and reach its own consensus with the president," outgoing Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Virginia, said.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, said the report could foster "growing bipartisan support in this country."
Under the panel's recommendations, U.S. troops could be pulled back slowly from the front lines, acting as more of a support structure for the Iraqi security forces, officials said. Several officials spoke about the report on condition of anonymity because the panel's deliberations were private.
Yet advisers to the panel and others aware of its work also noted that many of the recommendations will not differ greatly from either current policy or from ideas already under debate within the administration.
Bush: Graceful exit 'has no realism to it'
Bush repeatedly has rejected a wholesale troop withdrawal or what he calls artificial deadlines, vowing that he would not "pull the troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete." "This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all," Bush said Thursday. ()
Congressional Democrats were thrust back into power in the House and Senate in midterm elections last month widely viewed as voters calling for change in Iraqi policy. Democrats hoped the commission's report would give them leverage in seeking a new course in Iraq. They generally want troop withdrawals to begin sometime in 2007 but are divided over how many troops to withdraw, and when and where to reassign them.
Some Democrats worried Bush wouldn't accept the panel's recommendations.
"I don't think there's any indication they're going to feel moved, bound by any recommendations," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Look at how they're trying basically to prepare the ground for not going along with the recommendations."
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported Friday that the U.S. was considering whether to abandon efforts to bring Sunni insurgents into the political process to stabilize Iraq. The concern is that the outreach to Sunni dissidents has failed and may be alienating the country's majority Shiites, who dominate the government. The report cited unidentified sources familiar with the proposal.
The Iraq Study Group's approximately 100-page report will indicate the presence of U.S. troops is part of the problem in Iraq, one official said. The panel will demand more accountability from the Iraqi government, although it is not clear how progress would be measured, the official said.
Calls for a regional conference
The congressionally chartered panel, whose recommendations are not binding, will encourage Bush to engage U.S. adversaries Syria and Iran to improve regional dialogue, several officials said. That outreach could include a regional conference among all of Iraq's neighbors or a wider gathering of Middle East nations that also would address separate Middle East peace issues.
A senior U.S. official who participated in the deliberations said the recommendations would include resumption of Mideast peace talks.
The Bush administration has not completely ruled out diplomacy with Iran and Syria, but has been reluctant to enter talks that could be seen as reward for what Washington calls bad behavior.
The report suggests that Bush give Iraqi leaders notice that America's military commitment is not open-ended. The panel's Republican and Democratic members could not agree on bolder proposals. Options to quickly bring home a large percentage of the 140,000 U.S. forces supporting the fragile government in Baghdad or set a clear timeline for withdrawal were on the table.
Without firm benchmarks for a U.S. military withdrawal, the recommendations would essentially back up Bush's policy of using security conditions in Iraq, not a calendar, to guide battlefield decisions. The administration long has said U.S. forces will stand down as Iraqi forces are able to stand up.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told ABC News he thinks Iraqi forces will be ready by June to take full control of security. ()
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