New Iraq Plan?

A Congressionally commissioned panel tasked with looking at Iraq in a new light, along with a prominent Republican Senator, believe the Bush Administration may need to come up with a new Iraq plan. James Baker, a former Secretary of State and long-time Republican supporter who co-chairs the Iraq Study Group with Lee Hamilton, former Democratic legislator from Indiana, recently said on ABC’s “This Week” that the panel thinks there “are alternatives between the stated alternatives, the ones that are out there in the political debate, of stay-the-course and cut-and-run.” Similarly, Sen. John Warner of Virginia, Senate Armed Services chairman, told reporters after a recent visit to Iraq that the war is “drifting sidewise” and urged a change of course if the Iraqi government does not make significant progress in two to three months. Warner said that he has been closely watching the Iraq Study Group and wants them to meet with his committee in November.