Washington – The question now is whether President Bush will listen.
The Iraq Study Group delivered an unmistakable message Wednesday: Change the course in Iraq.
Bush can be a stubborn man, proud of his reputation for decisiveness and commitment to what he sees as principle, but he has shifted gears before in response to political pressure, though never on an issue of such magnitude.
The release of the panel’s 142-page report was the latest in a series of events that are testing the president’s commitment to an increasingly unpopular war. His poll numbers remain dismal. Last month’s elections rebuked his leadership as much as his party. The ousters of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton underscored the ebbing power of the “neoconservatives” who backed the war in Iraq. Even incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was confirmed for his new job Wednesday, concedes that the United States isn’t winning there.
The bipartisan group’s report leaves Bush more politically isolated than ever.
“Now the president has the ball in his court,” said incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “And we’re going to be watching very closely.”
While the president reserved judgment on the report, it essentially repudiates his entire Middle East policy. It called for withdrawing nearly all American combat troops by early 2008, precisely the kind of timetable that he has denounced repeatedly. It presses for direct U.S. talks with Syria and Iran. And it endorses much more U.S. pressure on Israel to reach peace with the Palestinians.
White House critics said the report marked a fundamental shift in the national debate over Iraq. It “moved the center of debate from whether we should leave to when and how,” said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“We may have turned the corner,” agreed Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., an advocate for withdrawing U.S. troops. “If the president recognizes the urgent need for a new direction in Iraq, we’ll see it happen soon.”
Bush could reverse course, but to date he has opposed some of the commission’s ideas. He has said he won’t talk to Syria and Iran about stabilizing Iraq.
He opposes anything resembling a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. He has rejected firm milestones for progress by the Iraqi government. And he has said repeatedly that he intends to stay in Iraq as long as it takes to achieve his goals. He couldn’t have been more emphatic than he was last week, when he said: “I know there’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq. We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done, so long as the (Iraqi) government wants us there.
“This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all.”
Bush made it clear even as he accepted the commission’s recommendations that he doesn’t feel bound by them.
“We probably won’t agree with every proposal,” he told commission members at a White House meeting.
Bush said he would consider all the recommendations and would work with Congress toward a consensus strategy. But he doesn’t plan to offer a new way forward until he receives Iraq policy reviews from the State Department, the Pentagon and the National Security Council.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the administration’s assessments of all the reviews might slip into the new year. In any case, the next move is up to Bush.
Bush: Good ideas from commission
Washington – The following is a transcript of remarks by President Bush:
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve just met with members of Congress from both political parties. My message is this: I want to work with the Congress, I want to work with people in both parties so that we can send a message to the American people that the struggle for freedom, the struggle for our security is not the purview of one party over the other. The American people want us to work together, and my intention is to do just that.
Today the Baker-Hamilton commission, the Iraq Study Group, put out what I thought was a very interesting report. There’s some very good ideas in there.
Not all of us around the table agree with every idea, but we do agree that it shows that bipartisan consensus on important issues is possible. It’s really important for the American people to know that there are people of goodwill here in town willing to set aside politics and focus on the security of this country and the peace of the world.
And I want to thank you all for taking time out of your schedules to come.
It means a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to the American people, to recognize that there are people in this town who are concerned more about the security of this country than they are about the security of their own political positions. And I’m proud to be with you. I want to thank you for your thoughts. I take your comments very seriously. I take your ideas very seriously. And it’s important to me that we continue to hear from the Congress as we fashion a way – a new way forward in Iraq, a new look, to achieve our objective of a country which can sustain itself, govern itself, defend itself and be an ally in this war against extremism and terrorism.
Thank you all very much.
