Article: President’s Isolation

Leaked Memo Highlights President’s Isolation
Financial Times
By Edward Luce in Washington
Published: December 3 2006 23:30

Few people in Washington see the leaking of Donald Rumsfeld’s Iraq memo as anything more than a belated and probably forlorn attempt to retrieve the outgoing defence secretary’s tattered reputation.

Yet Mr Rumsfeld’s blunt rejection of continuing “on the current path” in Iraq also reinforced the sense that George W. Bush’s presidency was now more lonely than it has ever been.

Last week, Mr Bush took every opportunity to restate that his administration was not prepared to qualify its goal of achieving success and “completing the mission” in Iraq.

This week, Mr Bush’s alleged “stubbornness” – a description put forward on Sunday by Carl Levin, the incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate armed services committee – will be given its severest test yet.

On Wednesday, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by James Baker, former secretary of state, and Lee Hamilton, former Democratic lawmaker, is set to publish its recommendations, which are likely to include options that directly undercut much of what Mr Bush has held dear since he ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

These would include holding direct talks with Iran and Syria, the two most recalcitrant regional powers in the eyes of the White House, which has consistently seen direct dialogue with Tehran and Damas cus as “rewarding bad behaviour”.

According to leaks, the ISG report would also include at least an implicit paring down of Mr Bush’s goal of bequeathing a democratic and stable Iraq if and when US forces start leaving the country.

Many fear the ISG report comes too late to put out the spreading fires in Iraq.

But it at least has the potential of uniting Democrats with Republicans behind a plan that Mr Bush has said he will study seriously.

“Jim Baker will basically give Mr Bush an option of making a graceful exit from Iraq over the next 12 to 18 months,” said one former administration official. “Unfortunately Mr Bush continues to reject this realistic approach.”

Mr Bush’s isolation was reinforced last week when Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, cancelled a meeting in Amman at the last minute following the leaking of a memo written by Stephen Hadley, the US national security adviser, that painted Mr Maliki in an unflattering light.

The two leaders met the following morning. But the Iraqi prime minister signalled a clear and growing distance from the US president, which in turn has strengthened speculation about how long Mr Maliki’s government can survive.

On Monday, Mr Bush will meet Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the pro-Iran and Shia Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Mr Hakim is the bitterest rival of Moqtada al-Sadr, another Shia leader, whose political group props up Mr Maliki’s weak premiership.

Critics of Mr Bush are urging the US president to reduce his ambitions in Iraq by focusing on creating a stable government there.