Stay the Course v.2.0. | News for Greens

The blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group (ISG) headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton will meet today in Washington to discuss the first draft of its review of Iraq policy. According to the New York Times, the current draft does not include a proposal for the phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. It is the latest sign that U.S. policy in Iraq is unlikely to undergo a significant shift despite the midterm election results, which were viewed as a decisive national rebuke of the Iraq war. NBC News correspondent Norah O’Donnell noted yesterday that the Pentagon is “already developing an alternative” review of Iraq policy “to give the President an out if he doesn’t like the recommendations” of the ISG. According to media reports, that review is likely to recommend a “stay-the-course-plus” strategy, combining a temporary increase of 20,000-30,000 troops with a long-term effort to train and advise Iraqi forces. Also, the White House this weekend repeated its “insistence that Iraq was not in a civil war,” days after one of the worst spasms of sectarian violence since the war began, intensifying the bloodshed that scholars say “already puts Iraq in the top ranks of the civil wars of the last half-century.” Just before the recent elections, Vice President Dick Cheney announced that the White House would go “full speed ahead” with its current Iraq policy regardless of the election results. “We’ve got the basic strategy right,” Cheney said. He was not bluffing.