Iraq Study Group

Alan K. Simpson Background: U.S. senator from Wyoming, 1979-97; chairman, Veterans Affairs Committee; Wyoming House of Representatives, 1964-77. Current positions: Visiting lecturer, University of Wyoming; law partner, Simpson, Kepler & Edwards, Wyoming; consultant, Tongour, Simpson, Holsclaw Group, a government relations group in Washington; author. Military: Army Party: Republican Age: 75 ** William J.

As the United States completes its withdrawal from Iraq, it is worth pausing to remember the determined peace activists who opposed the war from the start, including one who embraced their cause and became president. On Friday, some of them will gather in Chicago at the Federal Plaza, where in October 2002 Barack Obama, then a member of the Illinois Senate, stepped onto the stage to oppose the looming Iraq war. The plaza should be remembered as the place where the long march to peace began.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to give evidence this week to a bipartisan U.S. panel that is reviewing policy on Iraq, as Washington and London seek ways to stem violence in the country and draw down their troops. Blair is to speak Tuesday to the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by Republican former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), via video link from London, the prime minister's office said Saturday.

The international effort to stabilize Afghanistan is faltering and urgently needs thousands of additional U.S. and coalition troops, an influential group of American diplomatic and military experts concluded in a report issued Wednesday.

To dispute one criticism by the Iraq Study Group, the Defense Intelligence Agency has disclosed the number of its analysts devoted to Iraq: more than 300, with 49 focused exclusively on the insurgency. Last week's report from the study group, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, said the agency had fewer than 10 analysts with more than two years of experience studying the insurgency.

IF THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP is worried that its recommendations will not be taken seriously, then Thursday's news conference with President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair is cause for concern. "A lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody," Bush said. "To show you how important this one is, I read it." A moment later he added, as if for emphasis, "This is important." Oh well. At least the Iraq Study Group had one 24-hour news cycle before it was dismissed as "important."

The report issued last week by the blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group provides fresh proof of Iran's strengthened hand in the Middle East since the U.S.-led invasion: It mentions the Islamic Republic more than 50 times and makes clear that the U.S. will have to seek Iran's help for any resolution. "The report told the Iranians, You are mighty now in the region and in Iraq.

As the members of the Iraq Study Group were announcing the results of their inquiry Wednesday morning, Vintage Books, the trade paperback division of Random House, was rushing an authorized edition of "The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward -- A New Approach" into print. By midafternoon, Vintage had gone back to press for a second printing. Random House does not release numbers on its print runs, but a spokesman said by e-mail that many stores in the Washington, D.C.

WHILE THE Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence. Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves."

EVEN AS THE battle for Baghdad continues to rage, the United States must begin considering the future of another Iraqi city: Kirkuk. Here are two critical things to know about Kirkuk: First, it is surrounded by Kurdish towns and villages and has a population that is majority Kurdish -- yet it lies just outside the boundaries of the autonomous region of Kurdistan to the north. Second, although it is a poor city, Kirkuk is built close to one of Iraq's largest oil fields.

President Bush said Thursday that once his troop buildup improved security in the Iraqi capital, he intended to follow the withdrawal plan proposed by a bipartisan study group, embracing recommendations previously spurned by the administration. Speaking at a White House news conference, Bush for the first time adopted the blueprint outlined in December by the Iraq Study Group, saying he envisioned U.S. troops gradually moving out of their combat role and into support and training functions.

American military planners have begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters in case the current troop buildup fails or is derailed by Congress. Such a strategy, based in part on the U.S.

The new Democratic proposals for Iraq may eventually be weakened or killed, but in one stroke they have transformed a many-sided debate about the conflict into a sharp-edged argument about the endgame. Ever since the midterm election signaled deepening public unhappiness with the war, Republicans have urged a push toward victory while Democrats have complained about the administration's course but not gathered around a single alternative.

Re "Breakthrough," editorial, Feb. 28 The U.S. and foreign media seem surprised that the Bush administration will finally talk with Iran and Syria in Baghdad, as the Iraq Study Group recommended. The fact that the U.S. will meet with these two rogue states is not all that surprising nor a reversal in policy. Just as President Bush kept his cool and refused to meet face to face with Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, but insisted on a six-party conversation that is now paying dividends in restraining North Korea's nuclear ambition, this is what the U.S. will be doing in Iraq.

IN WHAT AMOUNTS TO a welcome about-face for the Bush administration, the United States will sit down next month to discuss Iraqi security with Iran and Syria. The discussions, called by the Iraqi government and to be held in Baghdad, also will include Britain, Russia and other Middle Eastern countries. They will mark the first time U.S. diplomats have engaged their Syrian or Iranian counterparts in three years.

As President Bush headed to an overseas summit on the Middle East, a federal commission searching for a bipartisan approach to the Iraq war met Monday in Washington to begin working on its final report. The 10-member Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), adjourned Monday evening without announcing any agreements or issuing any public comment after its daylong closed-session meeting.

WE SPENT FIVE years acting hysterically, like a nation that was in a fight with Ricky Ricardo. We were insane people, screaming about politics, shoving tiny American flags on the corners of our news shows, convincing ourselves that flipping houses was a real job. There was a moment there when we even considered shunning French fries. But in 2006 it all changed. This was the year of adulthood, of sobriety, of pragmatism: the year of acting reasonably.

Tehran's top envoy here said there was no need for contacts with the United States aimed at stabilizing Iraq, saying that Iranians already were pursuing channels to help secure their embattled neighbor. Ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi brushed aside recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, that the Bush administration speak to Tehran about the chaos in Iraq. "We don't need a Mr.