But we won’t. George Bush is more dangerous now than he’s ever been. His bizaare refusal to listen to his military, his joint chiefs of staff, the American public, the Iraq Study Group……is just really scary. He may end up doing more damage in his last two years with a Democratic controlled congress than he’s done up until now. Something’s gotta give. He’s gotta go.

US told to make ‘clean break’ in Iraq
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Warning that Iraq faces “complete disintegration into failed’state chaos”, the International Crisis Group (ICG) is calling on the United States to make a “clean break” in its strategy for both Iraq and the wider Middle East region.

In a new report released on Tuesday, the Brussels-based group endorsed many of the key recommendations submitted two weeks ago by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG), headed by former US secretary of state James Baker and former
congressman Lee Hamilton, including initiating direct talks with Iran and Syria, as part of a regional effort to stabilize Iraq.

But the 44-page ICG report, “After Baker-Hamilton: What to Do in Iraq”, stressed that some of the ISG recommendations are not nearly far-reaching enough.

It criticized, in particular, the ISG’s characterization of the current government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki “broadly representative of the Iraqi people” and its recommendation that Washington work to strengthen it.

“Hollowed out and fatally weakened, the Iraqi state today,” the report asserted, “is prey to armed militias, sectarian forces and a political class that, by putting short-term personal benefit ahead of long-term national interests, is complicit in Iraq’s tragic destruction.

“The government and security forces should not be treated as privileged allies to be bolstered. They are but one among many parties to the conflict,” the report stressed, adding that all Iraqi parties, as well as their foreign backers, must be brought to the table if the worst is to be avoided.

“We are looking at Iraq’s complete disintegration into failed’state chaos, threatening to drag down much of the region with it,” said ICG president Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister. “What is needed above all is a new multinational effort to achieve a new political compact between all relevant players.”

The ICG study comes one day after the release of an alarming new Pentagon report confirming that attacks against US forces and civilians in Iraq reached new highs - at nearly 1,000 per week - from August through November despite the deployment of nearly 20,000 additional US troops to try to curb violence in Baghdad over the same period.

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