Word: baker
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...President is going to be in a position to lay out a comprehensive plan at this point," Hadley said. Instead, Republican officials have said, the President plans to announce "a way forward" for Iraq in coming weeks based on input from Congress, an administration-wide review and the Baker commission...
...Administration officials had indicated they were eager to embrace the findings of the Iraq Study Group, led by Baker, the former Secretary of State, and former Congressman Lee Hamilton, if they were consistent with the President's principles. Now, though, Bush seems headed toward coming with his own strategy, based on an array of recommendations. The officials would not say, and perhaps the White House has not decided, whether the President's plan will take the form of a single announcement or a series of speeches about helping Iraq make progress toward governing, sustaining and defending itself - the White House...
...They want some competing data points and information streams," the adviser said. "They don't want the Baker commission to be the only vehicle for filling the vacuum." People who have been consulted by the commission say it appears to be headed toward recommending greater U.S. engagement with Iran and Syria on the Iraq situation, and some modest increase in troops - perhaps 20,000 to 25,000 - to speed up training of Iraqi security forces. Vice President Cheney, among others in the White House, is prepared to fight the recommendation about Iran and Syria. "He's against engagement with Iran...
...Security Adviser J.D. Crouch and N.S.C. officials who work on Iraq. The administration adviser said the meetings were scheduled partly to show that Bush is working the Iraq issue hard. "They don't want people to ask, 'why hasn't the Administration been creative? Why is it only Jim Baker is flying around the world and being engaging and being active and talking to diplomatic representatives of other governments?'" the adviser said. "They want to create some activity on the eve of the Baker commission report so that they can point to the fact that they haven't just been...
...been flummoxed about finding a solution. "There's complete bewilderment as to what to do," one official said. "They're very frustrated. They can't come up with anything. For the last couple months, they've been thrashing around, calling people, trying to find ideas." Administration officials say the Baker commission is discovering that if there were a workable answer for Iraq, the President would have already used...