NYT: Baker Sees Iraq Panel Departing From Bush Strategy

[jefferson_dem]

Baker Sees Iraq Panel Departing From Bush Strategy
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — James A. Baker III , the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan commission assessing Iraq strategy for President Bush, said today that he expected the group to depart from Mr. Bush’s call to “stay the course.”

In an interview on the ABC News program “This Week,” Mr. Baker said, “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.’ ”

Mr. Baker, who served Mr. Bush’s father as secretary of state and White House chief of staff, did explicitly reject a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, which he said would only invite Iran, Syria and “even our friends in the gulf” to fill the power vacuum.

While heading the commission, Mr. Baker has been talking to President Bush regularly and is unlikely to issue suggestions that the president has not tacitly approved. The independent panel was requested by Congress. Today, he was asked about statements last week by the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, who said Iraq was “drifting sideways” and urged consideration of a “change of course” if the Iraqi government cannot restore order in two or three months.

Asked if he agreed with that timetable, Mr. Baker said: “Yes, absolutely. And we’re taking a look at other alternatives.”

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/washington/09bakercnd...

[Mz Pip]

1. Well, duh.

It's about time. When what you're doing isn't working, stop doing it. Baker has to listen to Democrats since this commission is bi-partisan. Hopefully, he's gotten an earful.

What's wrong with filling the 'power vacuum' with someone other than the US? OK maybe Iran is a bad idea but it's hard to imagine that other countries in the region are that hot on Iran getting lots of power. It's in the best interests of the entire region for the US to be out of there. Our presence creates instability which no country wants in its backyard.

I believe the GOP wants this resolved before 2008. If the Dems regain the House and Senate, or just one of them and Bush continues with his my way or the highway crap, people will be pretty disgusted by 2008. More so than they are now.

Mz Pip

[Doctor_J]

2. James Baker, the man who defended the (/11 hijackers

from lawsuits by the victims. Why is this man allowed to have anything to do with runnin gthis country?

[grytpype]

3. Uh oh, Duhbya is not gonna like this at all!

That damn meddling James Baker is gonna ruin everything for Dub!

[razors edge]

4. nah, he is the mouthpiece of poppy

and when junior needs reined in, they call out baker.

[htuttle]

5. Baker's part of the Syndicate plays the 'long game'

Bush and Rove only care about the next news cycle most of the time.

That's why they don't tend to get along.

[Tellurian]

6. From what I've heard

Baker's idea is not something new. He's been trying to sell it since springtime.
The Iraqis are not happy about the prospect of the division. It seems the Sunnis
and Shiites are getting the oil enriched parcels while the Baths will be hanging out
in the desert.

Baker's remedy is by no means a solution, in fact it's anyone's guess what this division
will spawn. It could possibly lead to more conflict than resolution.

[hang a left]

15. I thought it was the Shiites in the South and the Kurds in the

North that were going to get all the oil and the Sunnis were going to get screwed....again.

[Tellurian]

18. Whatever, the Bath's are getting screwed..

And after the election, the Bush gang ignored the Baths as part of the new regime.
Which has really pissed them off!

[fooj]

7. Why is this SOB STILL around?

[LeighAnn]

8. What's good for Bush's ego isn't always good for Carlyle

Poppy sent Uncle Jim to publicly force Dubya to do things Carlyle's way.

[cal04]

9. Ex-secretary Baker readies Iraq policy

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a longtime Republican strategist, is preparing recommendations that President George W. Bush reconsider his "stay-the-course" strategy in Iraq.

Referring to a bipartisan commission he co-chairs, Baker said, "We are taking a look at other alternatives."


With his remarks Sunday on the ABC News Program "This Week," Baker joined a growing list of prominent Republicans critical of Bush's Iraq strategy in the weeks leading to congressional elections on Nov. 7.

But he agrees in part with the administration. Baker said, "if we picked up and left right now" Iraq would be plunged into "the biggest civil war you've ever seen," with Turkey, Iran, Syria and other neighboring countries getting involved.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_j...

[Aristus]

10. Baker is Bush Sr.'s consigliere. Looks like Daddy is going to bail

Junior out AGAIN!

[Supersedeas]

16. Daddy's assistant coming to the son's rescue--yet again!?!

[driver8]

11. "Stay the course" simply means, "I have no idea what to do!"

We can all see how that has worked out, can't we?

[rfranklin]

12. I think you created a great meme!

"Stay the course means, I have no idea what to do."

PERFECT!

[driver8]

13. I was going to say...

"Stay the course" means "I'm fucking clueless."

However, I wanted to keep it clean...for the kids.

[gratuitous]

14. Good luck with that, Mr. Baker

Bush is on record as saying that he's staying the course in Iraq, even if the only folks siding with him are Laura and Barney the dog. Opinion polls, study groups, advisory boards, and reality on the ground don't mean anything to George W. He's been appointed by God to lead America at this time, which means that whatever he does or decides has divine sanction. Do you have divine sanction, Mr. Baker? If not, George W. isn't going to listen to you.

One of the many things that George W. overlooks (and there are so many) is the lesson of the Oracle at Delphi. Croesus consulted the Oracle before making war with King Cyrus, and was assured by the Oracle that if he attacked, a great empire would be destroyed. What never occurred to Croesus was that the empire would be his own. What never occurs to George W. is that God may not be working with the benefit of the United States first and foremost.

[slaveplanet]

17. and up pops the 1982 plan

for Iraq...How surprizing...Not!

Oded Yinon's

"A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties"
Published by the
Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc.
Belmont, Massachusetts, 1982
Special Document No. 1
(ISBN 0-937694-56-8)


The Western front, which on the surface appears more problematic, is in fact less complicated than the Eastern front, in which most of the events that make the headlines have been taking place recently. Lebanon's total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precedent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula and is already following that track. The dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel's primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short term target. Syria will fall apart, in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure, into several states such as in present day Lebanon, so that there will be a Shi'ite Alawi state along its coast, a Sunni state in the Aleppo area, another Sunni state in Damascus hostile to its northern neighbor, and the Druzes who will set up a state, maybe even in our Golan, and certainly in the Hauran and in northern Jordan. This state of affairs will be the guarantee for peace and security in the area in the long run, and that aim is already within our reach today.14

Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization.15

http://theunjustmedia.com/the%20zionist_plan_for_the_mi...

[DemBums]

19. "The Fixer" weighs in, huh? Something is up ...

Baker doesn't crawl out from under his rock unless there is some "heavy lifting" needed to be done.

[Supersedeas]

20. But isn't Lil Lord Squishy Pant's Plan working - or are they in a State of

Denial?