Heard on NPR: Iraq Study Group Report

Heard on NPR

Weighing In on the Iraq Study Group Report

NPR.org, Dec. 7, 2006 · Supporters see the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group as a much-needed change of course for U.S. policy in Iraq -- and perhaps a last chance to stabilize that country. But critics worry that the proposals from the bipartisan commission focus more on extricating U.S. troops than on helping Iraqis emerge from the chaos. Here, a sampling of reactions heard on our air:

Leon Panetta

Member, Iraq Study Group
Former Clinton Administration Official

Dec. 6, 2006

"We have made a terrible commitment in Iraq in terms of our blood and our treasure. And I think we owe it to them to try to take one last chance at making Iraq work -- and more importantly, to take one last chance at unifying this country and this war."

Alan Simpson

Member, Iraq Study Group
Former Senator (R-WY)

Dec. 7, 2006

We talked with the Soviet Union. We had a phone next to each other for 40 years. Anybody forgotten that? We didn't blow each other up. That's what you do with Iran. It's what you do with Syria. It's what you do with North Korea. You start talking. It's a sick idea, I know, but...

Lee Hamilton

Co-Chair, Iraq Study Group
Former Congressman (D-IN)

Dec. 6, 2006

We don't know exactly what the number remaining will be, but even if our recommendation is fully accepted and all combat brigades not necessary for force protection are taken out, you're still going to have a sizable number of Americans there.

James Baker

Co-Chair, Iraq Study Group
Secretary of State Under First President Bush

Dec. 6, 2006

This is the only bipartisan report [President Bush] is going to get… And today, he has a Democratic Congress to deal with... The only way we're going to be able to sustain any policy in Iraq is if the country is behind it, and they're only going to be behind it if it's bipartisan.

Fawaz Gerges

Mideast Scholar and Visiting Professor, American University in Cairo

Dec. 6, 2006

I fear that the main focus of the report is how to extract American forces from Iraq's killing fields, rather than really finding solutions to Iraq's difficult problems.

Ali al-Yassiri

Spokesman for the Sadrist, the movement loyal to anti-U.S cleric Moqtada al-Sadr

Dec. 6, 2006

For three years, we've talked about the negative and dangerous influences that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria have had on Iraq. Now, politicians in the U.S. are talking about giving these countries an official role in our country. I really am
confused.

Carl Levin

Senator (D-MI) and Incoming Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee

Dec. 6, 2006

The main point of this is that we have got to tell the Iraqis that we are going to begin to redeploy our forces. And it could happen at any time ... and that is the message that they've got to hear... If we have any possibility of achieving success, the Iraqis have got to be forced, basically, to take control of their own country.

Michael Rubin

Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

Dec. 7, 2006

Baker and Hamilton have made a great deal about reaching a consensus. In and of itself, that may be one of the problems of the report, because sometimes, in order to reach an agreement, you come to the lowest common denominator of agreement. And that can create a muddle-through strategy.

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