Iraqi president calls panel’s report ‘dangerous’

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi president said Sunday the bipartisan U.S. report calling for a new approach to the war offered dangerous recommendations that would undermine his country’s sovereignty and were “an insult to the people of Iraq.”

President Jalal Talabani was the most senior government official to take a stand against the Iraq Study Group report, which has come under criticism from leaders of the governing Shiite and Kurdish parties.

He said the report “is not fair, is not just, and it contains some very dangerous articles which undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and the constitution.”

Talabani, Iraq’s ethnic Kurd president, blasted the report, which suggested embedding thousands more U.S. advisers in Iraq’s security forces to quicken their training.

“It asks that they put foreign officers in every unit, which is a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty ... What will remain of our sovereignty?” he said.

He singled out the report’s call for the approval of a de-Baathification law that could allow thousands of officials from Saddam Hussein’s ousted Baath party to return to their jobs.

Talabani also criticized the call for increasing the number of U.S. troops embedded to train Iraqis from 3,000 to 4,000 currently to 10,000 to 20,000. “It is not respecting the desire of the Iraqi people to control its army and to be able to rearm and train Iraqi forces under the leadership of the Iraqi government,” he said.

Letter to Bush planned
He said the Iraqi government planned to send a letter to President Bush “expressing our views about the main issues” in the report, although he would not elaborate.

An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday the Iraqi leader had reservations about the report but has yet to form a detailed response.

Sunni Arabs said they agree with the assessment of Iraq’s problems in the report by the commission headed by former Republican Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, but not the proposals to fix them.

In the Sunday talk shows, Baker and Hamilton said their recommendations for a more robust regional diplomacy was the best approach to promote peace and stability in the region.

“We’re not going to win this war militarily; we’re going to win it politically,” Baker said. “There must be a political reconciliation among the warring factions in Iraq or we’re going to continue to have major league problems.”

Talabani said Iraqis were not intimidated by the report’s threat to reduce political, military or economic support if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress.

The report said Iraqi leaders have failed to deliver better security or political compromises that would reduce violence, and it implied that a four-month joint U.S.-Iraqi military campaign to reduce violence in Baghdad is hopeless.

“I believe that President George Bush is a brave and committed man and he is adamant to support the Iraqi government until they’ve reached success,” he said. He said setting conditions was “an insult to the people of Iraq.”

Bush has given the report a lukewarm reception and said he will weigh its recommendations along with other possible courses of action.

The recommendations, which are not binding, also have met opposition from some in the United States for the suggestion to withdraw nearly all combat brigades from Iraq by early 2008.

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