Iraqi President Jalal Talabani gestures as he talks to reporters in his office in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006. Talabani harshly criticized the bipartisan report recommending changes to U.S. war policies, saying it contained some ‘very dangerous’ recommendations that would undermine the sovereignty of Iraq.

AP: Talabani calls Iraq report ‘dangerous’

The Iraqi president said Sunday the bipartisan U.S. report calling for a new approach to the war offered dangerous recommendations that would undermine his country’s sovereignty and were “an insult to the people of Iraq.”

President Jalal Talabani was the most senior government official to take a stand against the Iraq Study Group report, which has come under criticism from leaders of the governing Shiite and Kurdish parties.

He said the report “is not fair, is not just, and it contains some very dangerous articles which undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and the constitution.”

He singled out the report’s call for the approval of a de-Baathification law that could allow thousands of officials from Saddam Hussein’s ousted Baath party to return to their jobs.

The Kurdish leader also criticized the call for increasing the number of U.S. troops embedded to train Iraqis from 3,000 to 4,000 currently to 10,000 to 20,000.

“It is not respecting the desire of the Iraqi people to control its army and to be able to rearm and train Iraqi forces under the leadership of the Iraqi government,” he said.

He said the Iraqi government planned to send a letter to President Bush “expressing our views about the main issues” in the report, although he would not elaborate.

The Iraq Study Group Report is going NOWHERE. The American political consensus is that the report was an exercise by some old State Department/Government HASBEENS who think “talkin'” will solve Iraq War problems.

The Center for Security Policy has facilitated an “Open Letter To The President” from Arizona Senator Jon Kyl and former CIA Director James Woolsley – via Hugh Hewitt.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

Hon. George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

You have just received the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) with its 79 recommendations for policy changes, force redeployments and other course corrections with respect to the conflict in Iraq. We believe you have responded properly in welcoming this product — but reserving judgment as to whether you will accept its suggestions.

This is especially important because of the argument being made in some quarters that, in light of the unanimity exhibited by the distinguished Republican and Democratic members of this commission, the advice offered must be accepted in toto. As leaders of the bipartisan National Security Advisory Council of the Center for Security Policy, we would respectfully suggest that people of good will and expertise from both parties can – and in many cases do – come to very different conclusions than those offered by the ISG.

In particular, members of our Council on both sides of the aisle strongly disagree with what is, arguably, the Baker-Hamilton commission’s most strategically portentous recommendation:

The United States should immediately launch a New Diplomatic Offensive to build an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region?.Iraq’s neighbors and key states in and outside the region should form a support group to reinforce security and national reconciliation within Iraq, neither of which Iraq can achieve on its own. Given the ability of Iran and Syria to influence events within Iraq and their interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq, the United States should try to engage them constructively.

As the ISG’s own report documents, far from being proponents of stability, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its de facto colony, Syria, have gone to great lengths to destabilize the Middle East and, in particular, to prevent Iraq from becoming a free, democratic and peaceful nation.

Americans have been murdered for nearly three decades by Iranian operatives and Tehran’s proxies. U.S. and coalition personnel and civilians in Iraq are being slaughtered today by deadly Iranian I.E.D.s (Improvised Explosive Devices) and other weapons provided to like-minded Islamofascist groups.

At the same time, the Iranian regime is working to acquire nuclear arms and long-range ballistic missiles with which to deliver them. When combined with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated threats to “wipe Israel off the map” and bring about “a world without America,” we face the prospect that, in due course, the mullahs running Iran will have the means to carry out their apocalyptic intentions.

In our view, opening negotiations with Iran (and Syria) as suggested by the ISG will have several undesirable effects.

• First, such negotiations will legitimate that increasingly dangerous regime and reward its violent and hostile actions against us and our allies. We should rather endeavor to discredit and undermine this regime.

• Second, such a course will embolden our enemies who already believe they are sapping our will to resist them.

• Third, such an initiative would buy further time for the Iranian mullahs to obtain and prepare to wield weapons of mass destruction.

• Fourth, entering into negotiations with Tehran’s theocrats will create the illusion that we are taking useful steps to contend with the threat from Iran – when, in fact, we would not be. As a result, other, more effective actions – specifically, steps aimed at encouraging regime change in Iran – will not be pursued.

Finally, we trust that you will recognize the necessity of including Israel in any regional conference in which its security and other equities might be a subject of negotiations and that, in such settings and elsewhere, you will continue to adhere to the principle that America supports fellow democracies and eschews appeasement of terrorists and aggressors.

In short, Mr. President, we encourage you to follow your better instincts. By all means, review, assess and, as appropriate, adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and those of the executive branch agencies you have commissioned. We urge you, however, to continue to reject any course of action that would signal that America has become a country that, to quote thescholar Bernard Lewis, is “harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.”

Sincerely,

Senator Jon Kyl R. James Woolsey

Mark Steyn has ISG must stand for, uh, Inane Strategy Guesswork

If they’re lucky, this document will be tossed in the trash and these men and women will be the laughingstocks of posterity. But, if it’s not shredded and we embark down this path, then the Baker group will be emblematic of something far worse. The “Support Group” is a “peace conference,” and Baker wants Washington to sue for terms. No wonder Syria is already demanding concessions from America. Which is the superpower and which is the third-rate basket-case state? From the Middle Eastern and European press coverage of the Baker group, it’s kinda hard to tell.

President Bush will await the report from the Pentagon and the National Security Council and forge a “NEW” approach but NOT new objectives.Look for:

20-30,000 more troops deployed in Iraq to pacify Baghdad.

An Executive Order increasing military manpower by at least two divisions (30,000 more men).

Accelerated training of Iraqi military and police

Iran sanctions NOT negotiations

Bombing of Syria based military resupply facilities for Iraqi insurgents.

Stay tuned……

Iraq Study Group co-chairmen former Secretary of State James Baker(L) and former Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Lee Hamilton conduct a news conference by the group on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Baker said there is “no magic formula” to solve Iraq’s problems, as he unveiled a report on the way forward in the war-torn country.

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Rudy Giuliani Watch: ISG Report – Giuliani Calls Idea of Quitting Iraq a “TERRIBLE MISTAKE”

Iraq War Watch: From Iraq – The Iraq Study Group Report is “UNFAIR”

Iraq War Watch: Iraq Study Group – Try Diplomacy and then Cut and Run

Al Gore Watch: Gore – Iraq War “The Worst Strategic Mistake in the Entire History of the United States”

Iraq War Watch: Iraq Study Group Recommends Engagement with Syria and Iran

Michael Ramirez on President George W. Bush and the Iraq War

Iraq War Watch: Iranian Weapons Arming Iraqi Shia Militias

Michael Ramirez on Iran Helping Iraq

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