WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A high-level panel, the Iraq Study Group, recommended to U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday that U.S. troops should begin withdrawing from combat in Iraq and Washington should launch a diplomatic and political push to halt a "grave and deteriorating" crisis in Iraq. U.S. POLITICAL REACTION NANCY PELOSI, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DEMOCRATIC LEADER "The bipartisan Iraq Study Group has concluded that the president's Iraq policy has failed and must be changed. As the November elections clearly demonstrated, that is an assessment shared by the American people. "If the president is serious about the need for change in Iraq, he will find Democrats ready to work with him in a bipartisan fashion to find a way to end the war as quickly as possible." U.S. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER-ELECT HARRY REID, A DEMOCRAT OF NEVADA "The president has the ball in his court now. It is up to President Bush to implement the recommendations." DUNCAN HUNTER, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, A REPUBLICAN OF CALIFORNIA "We should come out of this process as a unified country standing behind the president ... Let's speak with one voice as we move forward." "Let's get behind this president." RICHARD LUGAR, SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN FROM INDIANA "The recommendations of the Iraq Study Group should be absorbed and considered by policymakers who are grappling with the complexities of Iraq policy and issues involving the broader landscape of the Middle East. I also welcome the concurrent activity in the Bush administration to review present policies and consider new approaches." "As this process moves forward, Congress must be a constructive partner to the administration." IRAQI POLITICAL REACTION SALEEM AL-JUBOURI, SPOKESMAN FOR THE IRAQI ACCORDANCE FRONT, THE MAIN SUNNI ARAB BLOC IN THE IRAQI PARLIAMENT "We find some of its points positive but, on the whole, we feel it's vague and avoids some issues. We don't want to see an immediate withdrawal that would cause chaos but we wanted a timetable for withdrawal." "We think the issue of addressing Syria and Iran is an admission of their massive interference." "We don't see it as necessary to increase the number of U.S. troops to train Iraqi forces. We just think they need to get more serious about it." HASAN AL-SHIMMARI, A SENIOR OFFICIAL IN THE UNITED ALLIANCE BLOC, THE DOMINANT SHI'ITE GROUP IN PARLIAMENT, AND A MEMBER OF THE SMALL FADHILA PARTY: "I think it was correct to analyze that the problem is political. It's natural to have talks with parties who are using Iraq as a place to settle scores among themselves." "If the Americans reached a common agreement with the Syrians, Iranians and all the other international players with the involvement of the Iraqi government then it should have a positive impact because the bulk of the reasons why Iraq is deteriorating are external." ABBAS AL-BAYATI, PROMINENT OFFICIAL IN THE UNITED IRAQI ALLIANCE "The Baker/Hamilton report portrays an American understanding of the crisis in Iraq. To turn this into policy changes on the ground, the Iraqi government must be given a role to make it succeed." "We mustn't jump into a regional conference without knowing precisely what we want other countries to help us with. We want them to back our democratically-elected government and also help us fight terrorism." OTHER FOREIGN REACTION BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY MARGARET BECKETT "It's a substantial and complex piece of work, to which of course the prime minister and senior officials have contributed. From those discussions, you get the impression that their thinking was broadly in line with our own but obviously we need to read and digest their formal recommendations." ANALYSTS' REACTION DANIELLE PLETKA, VICE PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, A STRONGHOLD OF NEOCONSERVATIVES WHO BACKED THE IRAQ WAR AND ARE NOW CRITICAL OF U.S. OPERATIONS "I am stunned by the shallowness of this report. The recommendations are simplistic, based on assumptions about the region, Iraq and its neighbors that are false. Victory isn't part of the strategy; while it's true that some believe that, dismissing victory out of hand is irresponsible to our nation." "The suggestion that the Iraqi government is made up of children who require some good ole' fashioned discipline to come together, or else, is alarming. And the tired view that the Syrian, Iranian and Saudi Arabian regimes are forces for good in the Middle East does little to raise hope that the ISG menu of options is a "solution" to Iraq." PETER COWHEY, DEAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS "What Baker and Hamilton have done is give President Bush a basis for negotiating with others in order to try to tidy up the mess of withdrawal, which is the best that can be done. It is Vietnamization all over again." "What the study group has done ... is say you can only get out of Iraq by making the diplomatic effort more inclusive, so that you muddy the waters and bring so many players to bear that there is no-one you can point a finger at decisively." KEITH CRANE, SENIOR ECONOMIST AT RAND, WORKED FOR COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY IN IRAQ: "Right now the police are totally broken in Iraq, and the Army is somewhat functional. On the ground, the only way you can prevent bad guys from doing things is if you have a police force. Right now a lot of people in the police are the bad guys." "The way to tackle that is to hold people responsible, put mentors in who can confront incompetent officers and, at the higher levels, continue pressure on the Iraqi government to fire people who are incompetent or running death squads out of police stations." JON ALTERMAN, DIRECTOR OF MIDDLE EAST PROGRAM AT THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES "Its most important impact will be political, and that impact will be felt far more strongly in Washington than in Baghdad. With the issuance of this report, it has become far easier to claim one is a loyal Republican and one differs strongly with the Bush administration on Iraq. When some Congressional Republicans did that in September, it set off a tremor. This could provoke an earthquake and leave the President very isolated if he refuses to change course." CHRISTOPHER PREBLE, DIRECTOR OF FOREIGN POLICY STUDIES AT THE CATO INSTITUTE "The President and military commanders will retain enormous latitude as to when, and even whether, the withdrawals will take place. And even if the Bush administration executed the commission's recommendations within the next year or so, a sizable U.S. force, perhaps 70,000 or more U.S. military personnel, would remain in Iraq indefinitely. That open-ended commitment is unacceptable."
