Iraq Panel: War a Catastrophe, Pullout by '08

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Iraq Panel Warns of Looming "Catastrophe" in Iraq

By Peter Baker, Dafna Linzer and William Branigin

The Washington Post

Wednesday 06 December 2006

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120606A.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120600419.html

Circumstances in Iraq are "grave and deteriorating," with a potential government collapse and a "humanitarian catastrophe" if the U.S. does not change course and seek a broader diplomatic solution to the problems that have wracked the country since the U.S. invaded, according to a bipartisan panel that sent its findings to President Bush and Congress today.

In what amounts to the most extensive independent assessment of the nearly four-year-old conflict that has claimed the lives of 2,800 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis, the Iraq Study Group painted a bleak picture of a nation that risks a "slide toward chaos" without new efforts to reconcile its feuding religious and ethnic minorities.

Despite a laundry list of recommendations meant to encourage regional diplomacy and lead to a draw down of U.S. forces over the next year, the panel acknowledged that stability in the country may be impossible to achieve any time soon.

See Full Story…

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120606A.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120600419.html

ENDS