Fri, Dec 01, 2006 page1

• Iraq Study Group to urge pullback, US media report

  CONFLICT While Bush told the Iraqi prime minister US forces would stay in Iraq `to get the job done,' the bipartisan group was expected to propose a measured withdrawal

  • AFP AND AP
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  An independent bipartisan commission will call on US President George W. Bush to order a measured withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, media reported yesterday amid mounting frustration at violence in the country.

  As Bush met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Jordan, debate raged in the US over whether the conflict should be called a civil war and the Pentagon ordered more troops into Baghdad.

  The 10-member Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker, said it would reveal its much-awaited findings next Wednesday.

  But the New York Times reported that the panel agreed to recommend withdrawing 15 US combat brigades in Iraq -- the bulk of the US fighting presence -- but leaving 70,000 or more US trainers, logistics experts and members of a rapid reaction force.

  The US currently provides the vast majority of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq.

  The group did not say where the troops would go, and did not present a withdrawal timetable, which Bush has opposed. But it made clear that the US military commitment should not be open-ended. The panel could be a major chance for Bush to overhaul his policy as Iraq slips towards chaos and demands mount to bring US troops home. The recommendations are non-binding.

  Crackdown on militias

  New US anxiety over the failure of Iraqi to crack down on Shiite militias surfaced in a memo by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, which the New York Times published on Wednesday.

  The memo said "reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action."

  Yet at a joint press conference in Amman, Bush praised Maliki as the "right guy" for the job, and said US forces would stay in Iraq "to get the job done."

  "This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all," he said.

  Without any specific reference to the commission, Bush acknowledged a general pressure for US troop withdrawals but said, "We'll be in Iraq until the job is complete, at the request of a sovereign government elected by the people."

  Maliki in turn said the two agreed "on the need to speed up the transfer of security responsibilities to the Iraqi forces."

  The White House said the memo had nothing to do with Maliki's failure to appear at a planned three-way meeting on Wednesday with Bush and Jordanian King Abdullah II, with spokesman Tony Snow describing it as "jointly decided."

  US military commanders said they were moving about 1,600 US troops to Baghdad in a bid to stem sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital.

  General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US commanders were sharing ideas with Maliki on where troops could come from to reinforce Baghdad.

  But he denied a report that US officials were considering turning over volatile al-Anbar Province to Iraqi security forces and using the marines from there to reinforce Baghdad.

  Controversy over how to refer to the raging violence in Iraq raged on meanwhile, as Democrat Senator Jack Reed said a "low level civil war" had been going on for months.

  Hoping to stop a further slump in US public support for the Iraq war, Bush and his aides have refused to use the term, even though some US media outlets have now decided to use it.

  Anthony Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said that the conflict could only be called a civil war.

  "If you can find a dictionary whose definition of civil war does not describe this situation as a civil war, I would like to know what it is," he said, as he unveiled a damning report into deteriorating conditions in Iraq.

  South Korea's ruling party said yesterday that it wouldn't back government plans to extend the deployment of troops in Iraq for another year without an agreement for the eventual withdrawal of all South Korean forces from the wartorn country.

  Earlier, the Uri Party had claimed the government agreed to the full withdrawal.

  But Noh Woong-rae, a party spokesman, said later that the government "hadn't accepted or agreed" to their proposal to remove all troops from Iraq by the end of next year.

  He added, however, that the government would have to follow the parliament's position since it requires lawmakers' approval for any troop deployment.

  The South Korean Defense Ministry said yesterday a pullout plan would be devised next year.
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