Iraq Study Group report already an orphan

By our correspondent

WASHINGTON: The Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group’s report, released last week, has already become a political orphan in Washington with little backing from either party, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

But it said most Americans think the US is losing the war in Iraq and support the bipartisan commission’s key proposals to change course. Yet, the paper said, neither President Bush nor the Democratic leaders who will take over the Congress in three weeks have embraced the panel’s report since it was released last week.

Bush set it aside in favour of his own review, but, faced with conflicting advice within the administration, the White House said on Tuesday that plans to announce a new Iraq strategy by Christmas would be delayed until January. Democrats remain undecided and kept their distance while trying to pressure Bush.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen politicians walk away from something faster,” Gordon Adams, who was a White House defence budget official under president Bill Clinton, told the Post. Nearly eight in 10 Americans favour changing the US mission in Iraq from direct combat to training Iraqi troops, a Washington Post-ABC News survey found.

Sizeable majorities agree with the goal of pulling out nearly all US combat forces by early 2008, engaging in direct talks with Iran and Syria and reducing US financial support if Iraq fails to make enough progress.

The dichotomy between the public’s support for the plan and the Washington establishment’s ambivalence illustrates the complex political environment as Bush searches for a new strategy in a war that has outlasted US involvement in World War II. A war-weary public appears hungry for ideas that would represent a major change, but political leaders remain uncertain whether the plan’s proposals would improve the situation.

The lukewarm reception to the report contrasts sharply with earlier expectations for the group’s report. In the weeks leading up to the report’s release, many in Washington predicted that the Iraq Study Group would become the next Sept. 11 commission, its conclusions imbued with an aura of bipartisan authority. Instead, conservative Bush supporters labeled it a plan for surrender while liberals called it a sellout for not proposing a firm timetable for withdrawal.

“Part of the problem is the expectation was so high,” said panel member Vernon E Jordan Jr “The expectation was proportionate to the seriousness of the issue and how greatly people were concerned about it. The problem is there is no absolute correct answer.”

Overall, 52 per cent now say, the United States is losing the war, up from 34 per cent last year. Three in 10 say the United States is making significant progress in restoring civil order; nearly half thought so in June. And 41 per cent say Iraq is now in a civil war, up from 34 per cent in August. Forty-five per cent describe the situation as close to a civil war.

Although the public remains leery of immediate withdrawal, it has lost faith that the Bush administration has a clear solution for Iraq. Twenty-five per cent think it does, down 13 points since September. Even Republicans are no longer convinced, with 49 per cent saying the president has a clear plan, down 22 points since September. The solace for Bush is that just as few Americans say the Democrats have a clear plan.

The public is more open to the Iraq Study Group plan, with 46 per cent for it and 22 per cent against it. When asked about some of its specific recommendations, respondents are dramatically more supportive with 79 per cent favour shifting US troops from combat to support; 69 per cent support withdrawing most combat forces by early 2008; 74 per cent support reducing aid if Iraq fails to make progress toward national unity and civil order; and about six in 10 support talking with Syria and Iran to try to resolve the conflict.

Republicans and Democrats in Washington have come to no such consensus. Rather than adopting the proposed solutions, Democrats prefer to leave it to Bush to find a way out of a mess they say he created. Sen. Carl M Levin (D-Mich), the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been guarded in discussing the Iraq Study Group report, saying only that there may be some sort of formal resolution endorsing it.

Jim Manley, spokesman for incoming Senate majority leader Harry M Reid (D-Nev), said: “I can’t name you one member who has wholeheartedly embraced each and every one of the recommendations. From the leadership’s perspective, there’s much to support. But we’re putting pressure on the president to come up with a way forward.”