A dose of realistic good sense was delivered yesterday by the Iraq Study Group to the Bush administration on how it should disengage from Iraq over the next two years. "We recommend a responsible transition", the all-party group underlined in their unanimous 79 recommendations. A substantial disengagement of US forces should be in place by 2008, its precise extent depending on how effectively the Iraqi government co-operates.
Leading members of the group did not mince their words. The situation in Iraq is "very, very difficult" and "serious", said its Democratic co-chairman Mr Lee Hamilton. It is "grave and deteriorating", with the violence daily increasing in scope and lethality.
His Republican colleague Mr James Baker said pointedly that "staying the course" is no longer an option, directly confronting President Bush's main policy platform on the war. Mr Baker went on to support the report's recommendation that talks should be opened with Iraq's neighbours, including Syria and Iran, with the main Arab states in the region, the United Nations and the European Union on a stabilisation policy for Iraq.
Pointedly, he said "you talk to your enemies, not just your friends" - and that this is an exercise in tough diplomacy. He reminded the press conference that such contacts were kept open between the US and the Soviet Union right through the cold war without any compromise of principle.
Mr Baker underlined that the formula of a weak central government in Iraq, presiding over three autonomous and ethnically defined regions, is a recipe for disintegration.
The White House promises to take these recommendations very seriously and to respond to them in coming weeks. Its spokesmen drew some comfort from the alleged absence of a timetable for US withdrawal. They repeated the existing policy line that no talks can be held with Iran until that state suspends its nuclear enrichment programme.
But it is hard to square this line with the report's proposals to reduce US involvement over the next two years, or with the idea of unconditional regional talks. Both are sensible recommendations. It will be necessary for Mr Bush to decide which is least unpalatable if he is to retain any credibility in this foreign policy disaster.
Talks with Iraq's neighbours and regional powers are essential to contain the violence. Many of them believe it would be irresponsible for the US to withdraw troops precipitously from Iraq, but accept they should be much reduced by 2008.
