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Stage Set for Iraq Policy Shift
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, left, met with Iraq Study Group co-chairmen James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton in Baghdad in August. The group's report is to be issued in December.
(By Daniel Berehulak -- Getty Images)
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Specifically, Pelosi said, the administration and Congress need to work together "to send a clear message to the Iraqi government and people that they must disarm the militias, they must amend their constitution, they must engage in regional diplomacy to bring more stability and reconstruction to Iraq, and that we must begin the responsible redeployment of our troops outside of Iraq."
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), who likely will take over as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, last year sent Bush a letter calling for the removal of one U.S. brigade -- about 3,500 troops -- for every three Iraqi brigades deemed capable. He said Bush told him his formula was "too rigid," but Skelton said he will press for this approach from his new position of power. "I think this is an important opportunity to begin a new policy direction," he said.
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), in line to head the House International Relations Committee in the next Congress, said there are few new ideas left to be tried and wasn't sure how much the Baker-Hamilton report would alter the debate.
"You can't unscramble the omelet and the tremendous mistakes that were made after major military operations," he said. "I don't see any magical solutions, but the president may be sending a signal of a change in course" by removing Rumsfeld immediately after the election, he said. "We are willing to meet him halfway."
Democrats yesterday appeared to have little interest in mandating a reduction in U.S. forces through spending cuts, a politically risky step.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution, said congressional Democrats will face some difficult choices as they try to move Bush toward a new approach to the war. He said they could rhetorically put pressure on Bush, but not enough to sound defeatist, keeping blame for policy failures on the GOP.
Democrats also could work with Bush to jointly pressure Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take more action to end the violence in Iraq, but that would directly associate the Democrats with administration policy.
O'Hanlon said the Baker-Hamilton report might help frame the debate by delivering a diagnosis of the problem that both sides can accept, in contrast to rhetoric from Bush that he said was often "divorced from reality."
Staff writer Michael Abramowitz contributed to this report.
