Word: bakers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bush's own national security adviser. Al-Maliki is beholden to arch-sectarian Moqtada al-Sadr, who this week showed his clout by ordering his minions out of the fragile coalition government. And if the climax of this cliffhanger was supposed to be former Secretary of State James Baker leading the cavalry to the rescue, the reports of his group's conclusions are not exactly reassuring. There is a sense of profound foreboding in Washington that events in Iraq have spiraled downward beyond anyone's control, and that all the Bush Administration can now do is contain the resulting damage...
...Baker report, the fruit of a 10-member bipartisan panel created by Congress, sought - but failed to find - any silver bullet to reverse the slide in Iraq. Like many such efforts that subcontract the thinking that Americans expect to be done by their President and lawmakers, the panel appears set to recommend goals without specifying the tools to achieve them. It will declare that the U.S. military presence in Iraq not be open-ended while simultaneously refusing to set a timetable for its withdrawal. At the same time it will call - as has incoming defense chief Robert Gates...
...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...
...Bush's aides have begun to chafe at the idea that Baker is needed as some sort of savior for Iraq. Hadley made it clear that the President hopes his Jordan foray will erase any such notion. "It's important, I think," Hadley said, "for the President to send the message to Prime Minister Maliki that while he is listening to all of these voices for ideas, is open to ideas, that in the end of the day to reassure Prime Minister Maliki that it is the President who will be crafting the way forward on Iraq and to reassure...
...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...