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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (732262)	3/15/2006 3:00:46 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Here is a way for the powers that be to begin to slowly change the posture of the conflict. What may come out is an exit strategy based on "national unity". _____________________________ Former officials launch fresh look at US Iraq policy By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent 1 hour, 17 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prominent former American officials announced a high-powered task force on Wednesday to look at alternatives for U.S. policy there amid plummeting support for the conflict that has killed thousands of Americans and Iraqis since it began three years ago. ADVERTISEMENT The study group is headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat who co-chaired the September 11 commission that examined those attacks. Baker said the 10-member panel was created at the urging of members of the U.S. Congress who felt a need for "an honest assessment of where we are and how we go forward and take this out of politics." Four think tanks organized the group. They are the United States Institute of Peace; the Center for Strategic and International Studies; the Center for the Study of the Presidency and the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Texas. A large group of senators and congressmen, including Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner, a Republican of Virginia, and Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat of Delaware who is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, attended the launch of the group to lend it political weight. Baker declined to say whether he believes the situation in Iraq is dire, noting that one of the study group's first tasks will be to evaluate the situation on the ground. There is no deadline for completing the work. Baker, who was White House chief of staff as well as secretary of state for President George W. Bush's father and a former Treasury secretary, told a news conference "we have no illusion whatsoever about the difficulty of this task." The White House will cooperate by facilitating travel to Iraq and access to key people and documents, Baker added. The group was launched as American opinion polls showed support for the war plunging and President Bush's own poll standings dropping to their lowest levels ever. Bush launched the invasion mainly to hunt for weapons of mass destruction, but none were found. Hundreds of people have been killed in Iraq since the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine, prompting warnings on Wednesday from officials, including the U.S. envoy, that another large-scale attack could set off all-out sectarian conflict. Republican Rep. Frank Wolf (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia said there is a need to "come together" and bring "fresh eyes on the target." There have been more than 2,300 U.S. military deaths and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since March 2003. Meanwhile, three months after elections in Iraq, leaders have yet to agree on who will head the government and fill other important posts. Hamilton, whose September 11 panel produced a hard-hitting report and subsequent updates that chastised Bush administration failings on national security, said the group's aim will be to look ahead, not revisit old debates about the U.S. invasion. "We will do our best to get bipartisan agreement" on conclusions and recommendations, he said. He added this "will be tough" but expressed confidence that study group members would "put national interest above all else." A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll this week showed that only 38 percent of Americans believe things are going well for the United States in Iraq, compared to 60 percent who said things are going poorly. In January, 46 percent thought things were going well, while 53 percent said they were going poorly. The study group will be advised by a military panel of four-star generals and four groups of experts focusing on the strategic environment of Iraq and the region around; the military situation in Iraq; political development in Iraq; and economic reconstruction.