WASHINGTON — A blue-ribbon study panel on Iraq completed deliberations Wednesday and announced plans to release a report next week that is expected to reject both a large U.S. troop increase and a quick U.S. withdrawal.
The final report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, to be issued Wednesday, will be what those close to the group described as a centrist document that offers a blunt critique of Iraq's worsening situation while calling for a continued -- though not indefinite -- American commitment.
Democratic and Republican panel members have complained privately of political pressure. But the five Democrats and five Republicans, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), reached agreement in final rounds of meetings.
"They had a lot of difficult issues to resolve ... they believe they have reached a consensus," said an associate of one panel member who discussed the deliberations on condition of anonymity, adding that the report would provide "a very candid assessment of the situation."
The work of the panel, organized in the spring, has gained steadily in importance alongside the rising death toll in Iraq, continuing U.S. casualties and Democratic victories in the midterm election that intensified pressure on President Bush to adopt a new strategy.
Growing anxiety over the war lifted expectations that the study group would offer a dramatic solution -- and the expectations have become a burden to the panel members and to the Bush administration.
"People are looking at us for a, quote, solution," former Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), a panel member, said this week. "Not that we're not going to do a good job -- but if they think this noble group of 10 are going to solve this issue, I think people are doing a little bit of heavy breathing.... I think expectations of our group are seriously overrated."
The panel was created -- through four Washington think tanks with the approval of Congress and the White House -- to provide "fresh eyes" for U.S. involvement. But it has come to be seen as a final attempt to extricate the country from a quagmire.
Panel members are worried that their advice will disappoint, while administration officials fear it will fuel criticism of their handling of the war.
"The expectations have reached mythic proportions," said another person involved in the panel's work, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
