Senators question Iraq panel's blueprint for changing war policy

WASHINGTON — Senators raised sharp questions Thursday about a special Iraq commission's recommendations for changing U.S. diplomatic and military strategies in the war, as the panel's leaders urged the Bush administration and Congress to urgently work out a new bipartisan approach.

One of the commission's co-chairmen, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., underscored the urgency of changing course in Iraq, where conditions were described as grave and deteriorating. He was asked at what point the situation there, if not corrected, will be hopeless.

"Well, there certainly is that point, and we're perilously close to that point," he replied.

Hamilton and his co-chairman, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee one day after delivering their report on recommended changes to Iraq policy. Hamilton said that a new, more realistic and practical approach is needed.

"That's a very tough policy problem, and in order for this to happen, it can't be pie in the sky, it can't be idealistic, it has to be pragmatic," he said. Later, he added, "We reject the idea that the situation is hopeless."

Most senators broadly endorsed the commission's report, which made 79 recommendations for policy changes. Their skepticism focused mainly on two of the recommendations: a diplomatic approach to Iran and Syria, and an acceleration of the U.S. military's work to train and advise Iraqi forces.

Hamilton said it was essential for the White House and Congress to work together on this, and he criticized lawmakers for not having taken a stronger role in overseeing the Bush administration's war policies.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said the key question now is whether Bush will effectively implement a new policy.

"We need the White House to become the 'Iraq Results Group,' " she said.

Baker said Congress could play a key role in that regard.

"If the Congress would come together behind supporting—let's say utopianly—all of the recommendations of this report, that would do a lot toward moving things downtown," Baker told the committee.