NEVER SEND A REALIST TO DO AN AMERICAN'S WORK:

Bush faults panel ideas, calls victory in Iraq vital (Farah Stockman, December 8, 2006, Washington Post)

The president also showed little enthusiasm for another of the panel's primary recommendations: that the United States try to enlist the help of Iran and Syria in stabilizing Iraq. He said the two countries "shouldn't bother to show up" at any regional meetings on the stability of Iraq unless they are committed to helping the young democracy survive politically, economically, and militarily.

Bush Appears Cool to Key Points Of Report on Iraq (Peter Baker and Robin Wright, 12/08/06, Washington Post)

President Bush vowed yesterday to come up with "a new strategy" in Iraq but expressed little enthusiasm for the central ideas of a bipartisan commission that advised him to ratchet back the U.S. military commitment in Iraq and launch an aggressive new diplomatic effort in the region.

On the day after the congressionally chartered Iraq Study Group released its widely anticipated report, much of Washington maneuvered to pick out the parts they like and pick apart those they do not. The report's authors were greeted with skepticism on Capitol Hill, and Democratic leaders used the occasion to press Bush to change course without embracing the commission's particular recipe themselves.

The group's 96-page report roiled some in the Middle East, particularly Israel, which rejected proposals for concessions to Syria. And it drew fire from current and former U.S. officials who called its diplomacy ideas unrealistic, unattainable and even misguided.

The Commission would ideally like to impose an oppressive regime on Iraq, while American policy is, inevitably, to liberate the rest of the Middle East instead.

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Bush Backs Away From 2 Key Ideas of Panel on Iraq (SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and KATE ZERNIKE, 12/08/06, NY Times)

[M]r. Bush, making his first extended comments on the study, seemed to push back against two of its most fundamental recommendations: pulling back American combat brigades from Iraq over the next 15 months, and engaging in direct talks with Iran and Syria. He said he needed to be “flexible and realistic” in making decisions about troop movements, and he set conditions for talks with Iran and Syria that neither country was likely to accept.

The president addressed reporters after meeting in the White House with his closest ally in the war, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. In light of the report’s stark warning that the situation in Iraq was “grave and deteriorating,” Mr. Bush came close to acknowledging mistakes. “You wanted frankness — I thought we would succeed quicker than we did,” the president said to a British reporter who asked for candor. “And I am disappointed by the pace of success.”

But Mr. Bush, and to a lesser extent, Mr. Blair, continued to talk about the war in the kind of sweeping, ideological terms the Iraq Study Group avoided in its report. While the commission settled on stability as a realistic American goal for Iraq, Mr. Bush cast the conflict as part of a broader struggle between good and evil, totalitarianism and democracy.

If extremists emerge triumphant in the Middle East, Mr. Bush warned, “History will look back on our time with unforgiving clarity and demand to know, what happened? How come free nations did not act to preserve the peace?” [...]

On Iran and Syria, Mr. Bush stuck to the conditions he set long ago for talks: Iran must abandon its nuclear program, and Syria must give up its support for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. “If they want to sit down at the table with the United States, it’s easy — just make some decisions that will lead to peace, not to conflict,” he said.

Baker report dismissed as unrealistic and ill-informed (Michael Howard, December 8, 2006, Guardian)

Amid growing Iraqi criticism of the findings of the Baker-Hamilton commission, senior government figures yesterday expressed bewilderment at a proposal to take the police force out of the hands of the interior ministry and put it under the control of the ministry of defence. [...]

But a senior security adviser to the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, dismissed the proposals. "Like too many of the Baker report's recommendations, it is likely to cause more problems than it solves," he said. "The interior ministry needs cleaning of some bad elements, and we are doing so. Transferring the national police lock, stock and barrel to the defence ministry is unworkable and unrealistic."

He claimed the Iraq Study Group had included the suggestion at the behest of Sunni leaders, who charge the interior ministry, which is under Shia control, with running anti-Sunni death squads. The defence ministry is headed by a Sunni.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 8, 2006 7:39 AM