Iraq panel may have few good options to offer

[Human Torch]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15687895/

By Michael Abramowitz and Thomas E. Ricks
The Washington Post
Updated: 32 minutes ago

Iraq panel may have few good options to offer
Bush, Cheney, Blair to meet with Iraq Study Group on Monday

WASHINGTON - After meeting with President Bush tomorrow, a panel of prestigious Americans will begin deliberations to chart a new course on Iraq, with the goal of stabilizing the country with a different U.S. strategy and possibly the withdrawal of troops.

Tuesday's dramatic election results, widely seen as a repudiation of the Bush Iraq policy, has thrust the 10-member, bipartisan Iraq Study Group into the kind of special role played by the Sept. 11 commission. This panel, led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Indiana congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D), might play a decisive role in reshaping the U.S. position in Iraq, according to lawmakers and administration officials.

Those familiar with the panel's work predict that the ultimate recommendations will not appear novel and that there are few, if any, good options left facing the country. Many of the ideas reportedly being considered -- more aggressive regional diplomacy with Syria and Iran, greater emphasis on training Iraqi troops, or focusing on a new political deal between warring Shiites and Sunni -- have either been tried or have limited chances of success, in the view of many experts on Iraq. Baker is also exploring whether a broader U.S. initiative in tackling the Arab-Israeli conflict is needed to help stabilize the region.

Given the grave predicament the group faces, its focus is now as much on finding a political solution for the United States as on a plan that would bring peace to Iraq. With Republicans and Democrats so bitterly divided over the war, Baker and Hamilton believe that it is key that their group produce a consensus plan, according to those who have spoken with them.



Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, left, of the Iraq Study Group, speaks as co-chairman Lee Hamilton looks on during a briefing at the Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., in September.

[gratuitous]

1. No way! St. James of Baker not going to ride in on a white horse?

You mean Iraq really is as fucked up as we all knew it has been for the last year or more? Can't Unka Jim just wave his magic "fixer" wand like he did with the Florida debacle in 2000 and just have the Supreme Court rule that Iraq is peaceful? Can't Lee Hamilton get enough whitewash to cover all the death, destruction and ongoing mayhem that we've wrought in Iraq? Golly, say it isn't so!

Maybe they can call in the American Enterprise Institute to create a new reality for them?

[lapfog_1]

2. However much money we are spending on these guys....

I would have done the same job for half the amount!

DUUUUUUUUUUUH! Few good options my ass. There are ANY "good" options, assholes.

[twilight_sailing]

3. then again, maybe not. oem

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Prestigious Americans?

They mean war criminals and war criminal enablers.