Bush Preparing To 'Cut and Run' From Iraq

Washington, D.C.

10/17/06

A panel of White House advisers, which includes a former US secretary of state, is ready to recommend large troop withdrawals from Iraq, it emerged today.

In what would be a major shift in policy, the experts are said to be ready to suggest the "Redeploy and Contain" option which would mean withdrawing American troops to bases outside Iraq where they could be used against terrorist organizations anywhere in the region.

The report is being prepared by a 10-member commission called the Iraq Study Group, headed by former US secretary of state James Baker, and is backed by President Bush.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the alternatives to a large-scale withdrawal include "Stability First", which would mean continuing to try to stabilise Baghdad, boosting efforts to entice militants into politics and bringing Iran and Syria into plans to end the fighting.

Another option is "Stay the Course, Redefine the Mission", but the panel appears to be less interested in that choice.

Violence in Iraq and rising American casualties are emerging as key issues for November's US mid-term elections.

"There's got to be another way," is how one member of the Iraq panel summed up their views on the situation in Iraq and the failure of current US policy, according to the LA Times.

Mr Baker, who was Secretary of State under President George HW Bush, the current president's father, has so far stressed that the panel has not come to a definitive conclusion.

But he has indicated the direction of the panel's thinking in recent television interviews.

"Our commission believes that 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'", he told ABC News recently.

He has also said there would probably be some things in the report that the administration might not like.

The White House has not commented on the newspaper report.

By Richard Alleyne