From Deseret News archives:
Bennett backs bill on steps to take in Iraq
The study group released its report last December with co-chair James Baker saying they did not recommend a "stay the course" solution to the war but instead offered several recommendations that four Democrats and four Republicans in the Senate want to see as the government's policy for the war.
"The legislation we are offering will give the president and Congress new opportunities to work together to find solutions for a more stable Iraq," Bennett said in a statement. "The Iraq Study Group performed a thorough analysis of the situation in Iraq, and this bill reflects the bipartisan support for their recommendations."
The bill would create the Iraq International Support Group to help with security in the region, assess the budget and personnel impact of the war on the U.S. military, speed up Iraqi oil production, encourage the country to develop a plan to distribute oil revenues and set standards to enable the U.S. to withdraw troops beginning in the first quarter of 2008 and make sure the president includes the cost of the war in the annual budget request.
Baker, a former secretary of state, and co-chair Lee Hamilton, former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have confirmed that the legislation accurately reflects the recommendations of the ISG report, according to the bill's authors.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he will not sign on as a co-sponsor to the bill.
"I do have problems with some of the policy recommendations, which I could not endorse through legislation," Hatch said. "The report's approach to regional diplomacy, for example, is unrealistic. If Iraq is unable to get it together internally, there's no point to external approaches. And it's clear that Iran and Syria maintain antithetical approaches to our goals in Iraq that will not be resolved through talks."
Hatch said the "fundamental point of the Iraq Study Group report is solid."
Hatch supports accelerated training of Iraqi security forces and that U.S. support is conditioned on Iraq's ability to govern itself, which the group included in its recommendations.
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