Iraq U-Turn Proposed by Whitehouse Panel, page 1

From today's Times in the UK, it appears that a panel headed by James Baker and set up to advise the Whitehouse is proposing a substantial policy change for the administration, up to and including a withdrawal from Iraq.

www.timesonline.co.uk
A high-level panel set up to advise the White House on Iraq is to propose radical changes to US policy including the large-scale withdrawal of US troops, it has been reported.

The commission, which is headed by James Baker, the former Secretary of State under the first President Bush, will recommend two options which would effectively represent reversals of US policy.

One of these, called "Redeploy and Contain", would see the phased withdrawal of US troops to bases outside Iraq where they could be deployed against terrorist organisations anywhere in the region.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Interestingly, the of the three options in the article, the 'Stay the Course' one was the least popular - probably a tacit admission that the current policy is a disaster.

I think that this could be a way to get the US out Iraq without the president losing face (which is what it's all about), and thus stopping what appears to be a failed policy.