four more battalions to Iraq early next year
Panel Reaches Deal on U.S. Iraq Policy
A bipartisan commission has reached a consensus on new U.S. policies for Iraq and will announce its recommendations next week, the group’s co-chairman said Wednesday.
Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., declined to disclose any specifics about the Iraq Study Group’s decisions. The report, much anticipated by the Bush administration and members of Congress, is coming out next Wednesday amid the spiraling violence in Iraq that has raised questions about the viability of the Iraqi government and U.S. policy for a deeply unpopular war
”This afternoon, we reached a consensus … and we will announce that on December 6,” Hamilton told a forum on national security at the Center for American Progress, a liberal group…
…Defense officials, meantime, said the Pentagon is developing blueprints to send four more battalions to Iraq early next year, including some to Baghdad.
The extra combat engineer battalions of Army reserves, would total about 3,500 troops and would come from around the United States, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployments have not been announced.
UPDATE: Iraq Panel to Recommend Pullback of Combat Troops.
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal, according to people familiar with the panel’s deliberations.
The report, unanimously approved by the 10-member panel, led by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, is to be delivered to President Bush next week. It is a compromise between distinct paths that the group has debated since March, avoiding a specific timetable, which has been opposed by Mr. Bush, but making it clear that the American troop commitment should not be open-ended. The recommendations of the group, formed at the request of members of Congress, are nonbinding.
Filed: Congress, Iraq, Middle East, Military, Pentagon
