The my-way-or-the-highway pResident wasted no time before shooting down the Iraq Study Group's leaked recommendations:
Although the president was not asked directly about the panel's recommendations, which will be made next week but were partially leaked to news reporters late Wednesday, he seemed to have the group in mind when he said: "This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it whatsoever."
Iraq Study Group to Call for Phased Withdrawal:
"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," reports the New York Times.
"The report recommends that Mr. Bush make it clear that he intends to start the withdrawal relatively soon, and people familiar with the debate over the final language said the implicit message was that the process should begin sometime next year."
The report also recommends that the U.S. talk with one of the members of the Axis of Evil club, or it recommends "direct engagement with Iran and Syria," which would "ultimately involve direct, high-level talks with Tehran and Damascus."
But talking with people you disagree with is so totally out of high school. Bush will never agree to it.
"Mr. Bush has rejected such contacts until now, and he has also rejected withdrawal, declaring in Riga, Latvia, on Tuesday that while he will show flexibility, 'there’s one thing I’m not going to do: I’m not going to pull the troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete.'"
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