Bush Appears Cool to Key Points Of Report on Iraq

"How do you solve problems without talking to people?" Hamilton asked. The panel, he added, "flat out" rejects the idea that talks should depend on good behavior.

Still, Baker said, "the last thing in the world" he is interested in is "backing the president into any corner" on Iraq. "That's not the purpose of this," he said. Unlike the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Baker said his panel does not intend to stay around to monitor the implementation of its recommendations. After appearing on Sunday talk shows, he said, "I'm finished."

Former senior officials also questioned the focus on Iran and Syria. "They can be spoilers in Iraq, but they're not the fixers," said Dennis Ross, former chief Middle East negotiator for two administrations. "Even if Iran and Syria did exactly what we want, we'd still have an insurgency in Anbar province and we'd still have sectarian warfare driven in no small part by the Shiite militias. Ultimately, the problems we face today come from within Iraq, not outside it."

The plan would not work without a committed effort, which the Bush administration has never demonstrated, others said. "Cherry-picking ideas and sending them into the bowels of the stovepiped bureaucracy to execute will result in more of the same uncoordinated, differing priorities, mess," said retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a former Middle East mediator for the Bush administration.

Other military officers expressed caution about the Iraq Study Group's proposal to pull out combat units by the first quarter of 2008 while leaving behind tens of thousands of troops to train, advise and embed with Iraqi forces.

Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the top U.S. field commander in Iraq, said in a telephone interview that he has read the report's executive summary and found many recommendations "very, very valuable." He added: "I dare say I believe if we had applied some of these principles a little bit earlier on in our time over here, many of the issues we're facing here today might not in fact be, and we might not have the level of violence here."

Chiarelli said that he agrees it makes sense to shift the mission to a supporting role as Iraqi forces take responsibility for security, but that it could be difficult to remove combat forces by early 2008. "I think that date may be a date we could meet . . . if we would harness all the power we have as a nation," he said, referring to diplomatic and economic efforts as well as military. "If all you do is rely on what is the easy part for us" -- meaning the military effort -- and "if we don't get buy-in in the other areas the study group has pointed to, I think that's going to be very problematic."

At his news conference, Bush brushed past the 2008 goal and said troop withdrawals would depend on conditions on the ground. "I've always said we'd like our troops out as fast as possible," he said. "I think that's an important goal."

In his opening remarks, Bush focused on the broader aspirations of the Iraq war: the "spread of freedom" and the attempt to build "societies based on liberty" in the Middle East -- concepts implicitly rejected by the Baker-Hamilton commission as unrealistic and naive. "The only way to secure a lasting peace for our children and grandchildren is to defeat the extremist ideologies and help the ideology of hope, democracy, prevail," he said.

But just days after his new defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, and his close friend Blair both said that they believe the United States and Britain are not winning the war, Bush bristled when asked if he was "still in denial about how bad things are in Iraq."

"It's bad in Iraq," Bush replied sharply, glaring at the reporter. "Does that help?"

The president added: "In all due respect, I've been saying it a lot. I understand how tough it is, and I've been telling the American people how tough it is . . . I also believe we're going to succeed. I believe we'll prevail."

Staff writers Michael Abramowitz, Thomas E. Ricks and Josh White contributed to this report.