Iraqi Group Unsure March 2008 Goal For Ending Combat Is Valid

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The co-chairs of the Iraq Study Group said Monday they were unsure whether the panel's goal of pulling combat troops out of Iraq by March 2008 remains valid. <br/><br/>The blue-ribbon

Monday, June 11th 2007, 4:23 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The co-chairs of the Iraq Study Group said Monday they were unsure whether the panel's goal of pulling combat troops out of Iraq by March 2008 remains valid.

The blue-ribbon panel's five Republican and five Democratic members concluded six months ago that most combat troops could be out of Iraq by the 2008 date if certain steps were taken. They said a smaller contingent could be left behind to train Iraqi security forces and conduct other narrowly defined missions.

The report received a tepid response by the White House and Congress until recently, as administration officials contemplate their next step in Iraq and congressional Republicans look for a solution to end the politically unpopular war.

Addressing a National Press Club luncheon, James Baker and Lee Hamilton said they believed the group's findings were still meaningful.

But the 2008 date ``would, of course, be something different, in my view at least, because we were talking that date when we came with the report in December of 2006. This is now June of 2007,'' said Baker, secretary of state during the first Bush administration and Republican co-chairman of the group.

Hamilton, the panel's Democratic co-chairman and a former Indiana congressman, told a reporter he doesn't disagree that the goal might be outdated.

``But I'm not sure I want to retreat from that date,'' he said. ``I would still push for that goal.''

Baker and Hamilton told the audience they believed the Bush administration was moving toward embracing more of the group's findings. Since the study's release, the Bush administration has accepted some of its key recommendations, including reaching out to Iran and Syria to discuss the violence in Iraq and placing conditions on U.S. aid to Iraq. Privately, Bush has told lawmakers he is considering adopting more of the panel's recommendations but wants to do so on his own timetable.

``Looks to me like they might be moving ... in our direction,'' Baker said. ``I think that would be good. We're not going to be able to do what we have to do in terms of a responsible disengagement (from) Iraq if the country is not unified.''

Hamilton said the performance of the Iraqi government in recent months had been ``hugely disappointing'' and that he is losing confidence in Baghdad's ability to reach a political settlement that could ease sectarian tensions.

``I don't really think the situation is much improved in Iraq since we left,'' he said of the panel's brief 2006 trip to Baghdad.

When asked whether the invasion of Iraq had made the U.S. more or less vulnerable to another major terrorist attack, both Baker and Hamilton said there was no telling.

``One thing I do know and believe very affirmatively, and that is if Iraq was not the center of the war on terror before we went in there, it certainly is now,'' Baker said.