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[Adventurer]

World News


Talk to Iran and Syria, bi-partisan panel tells Bush


New York, Oct 9: Bush dministration should enter into direct negotiations with countries it had shunned so far, including Iran and Syria, according to James Baker, Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan panel reassessing Iraq strategy.

But the former American Secretary of State rejected the suggestion for a rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq, saying that would invite Iran, Syria and "even our friends in the Gulf" to fill the vacuum.

The current Iraqi government, he said, is capable of sustaining pace in the war-torn region but "if they think we're going to leave them, they won't be able to do it." "Iraq is capable to doing it if gets the political will," he said in an interview with ABC news.

He also rejected a proposal by Senator Joseph R Biden Jr., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to decentralize Iraq and give the country's three major sectarian groups, the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, their own regions, distributing oil revenue to all, saying it was unworkable.

He disagreed with President George W Bush's policy of not negotiating with Iran and Syria, saying he always believed in talking to the enemies.

Stating that he had made 15 trips to Syria when he served under current president's father, he said it has got to be hardnosed, it's got to be determined." "You don't give away anything, but in my view, it's not appeasement to talk to your Enemies," he said.

Baker told the interviewer that the report of his panel could be available by December but the deadline could slip in to the New Year. The most important thing is to take this thing "out of politics."

"We are going to try very hard to stay away from the political terms, change the course, stay the course, and all that stuff," Baker said. With the president's blessing, Baker is acting with Lee H, Hamilton, a former Democratic Congress and the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission and others.

"I think the administration knows that we are working hard to come up with a consensus recommendation," he said. "We've got a lot of good Republicans and Democrats on this commission, and we are determined to come up with a consensus report." But Baker admitted he's "not sure" that the Bush administration will heed any advice given by the independent group.

The "Iraq Study Group," created by Baker last March with the encouragement of some members of Congress to come up with new ideas on Iraq strategy, has already talked to some representatives of Iran and Syria about Iraq's future.

His comments yesterday, the New York Times said, offered the first glimmer of what other members of his study group, in interviews over the past two weeks, have described as an effort to find a politically face-saving way for Bush slowly to extract the United States from the war.

"I think it's fair to say our commission believes that there are alternatives between the stated alternatives, the ones that are out there in the political debate, of 'stay the course' and 'cut and run,' " Baker said.

The Times quoted White House officials and commission members as saying Baker has been talking to President Bush and his national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, on a regular basis. They say he is unlikely to issue suggestions that Bush has not tacitly approved in advance.

--- PTI

[EFLtrainer]

Somebody slapped the neo-cons upside the head and reminded them there is an election to lose. Bush's Cadre is caving, but they're going to do everything they can to make it look like it was their idea.

And look at this: Baker is announcing the core findings of the panel NOW, four weeks before the elections, but the report won't be ready till after? Yeah, right.

Don't you love politics?

[Ya-ta Boy]

James Baker and integrity are not words that you can use in the same sentence without breaking a lot of rules.

[thepeel]

Why not?

[EFLtrainer]

Actually, I disagree a bit, though not completely, Ya-ta. Baker has always been a Pol, but as honest as a Pol can be. That's not saying much, but he's one of the few Repubes I'd listen to with much more than a grain of salt.

What gets me is what I posted before: it's all stuff "leftwingers" and "cut 'n runners" have been saying for years, but suddenly it's a Neo-con agenda?

Tripe.

[Adventurer]