A warning by a senior Republican senator that “bold decisions” will be required on Iraq if progress is not made soon has prompted talk that the White House might be forced into policy changes after the mid-term elections in November.

Among the options is one to divide Iraq up into three loosely federated parts –Shia, Sunni and Kurd. That has some serious drawbacks.

But some change is in the political air in Washington. The former US Secretary of State James Baker, who co-chairs a panel tasked by Congress to examine options, said on ABC News over the weekend: “I think it’s fair to say 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.’”

Mr Baker’s commission is due to report after the mid-term elections. It could be the peg on which a shift of approach is hung.

The co-chair Democrat Lee Hamilton has been critical of the Iraqi government’s performance.

“The Iraqi government must act,” said Mr Hamilton in September.

“The government of Iraq needs to show its own citizens soon, and the citizens of the United States, that it is deserving of continued support.

BBC article here

Some of the questions the commission are pondering:

Withdrawal?
More troops?
Threaten to leave?
Talk with insurgents?
Divide Iraq?
Stick it out?

The article concludes:

White House unprepared.