Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf urged President Bush to reinstate the Iraq Study Group with the goal of providing a new report on U.S. Iraq policy this fall, about one year after the group presented its first set of recommendations.
In a joint letter with four other congressmen Friday, Wolf called on the president to act immediately to reconvene the panel, also called the Baker-Hamilton Commission after its two chairs: Former Secretary of State James Baker and Lee Hamilton, former U.S. representative from Indiana.
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Wolf, a Republican who represents Northern Virginia’s 10th District, is considered the father of the Iraq Study Group.
The panel’s recommendations last year included diplomatic engagement with longtime adversaries Iran and Syria and pulling out most military forces by early 2008.
The next report, according to the June 29 letter, would be timed with a separate assessment of the troop surge from Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
“We believe that with an assessment due from the Administration … in September, this is another critical time for the Congress and the American people to hear again from the ISG’s independent and bipartisan voice,” the congressmen wrote.
The U.S. House passed an amendment to an appropriations bill last week that would put $1 million toward re-establishing the study group, but the legislators doubted the bill would be signed into law in time for the group to issue a report this fall.
David Edelstein, an assistant professor in Georgetown University’s Security Studies program, said he is “fairly skeptical” about what the new report would accomplish.
“There’s no magic solution out there that’s waiting to be found by some reconstructed high-level panel,” he said. “The problems in Iraq are fairly evident.”
