McConnell: Support growing for Iraq Study Group plan

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/mcconnell-support-growing-for-iraq-study-group-plan-2007-06-17.html

McConnell: Support growing for Iraq Study Group plan
By Klaus Marre
June 17, 2007

The Republican leader in the Senate said Sunday that support in the GOP is growing to follow recommendations from the Iraq Study Group.

“The president himself has spoken favorably of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which…basically involves still having troops forward- deployed but getting them off the point which would obviously reduce our casualties, and possibly reducing our numbers as well,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.

He pointed to the September military and diplomatic report on Iraq as a critical point at which strategy and troop levels can be reevaluated.

“I think everybody anticipates that there’s going to be a new strategy in the fall,” McConnell said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “I don’t think we’ll have the same level of troops, in all likelihood, that we have now. The Iraqis will have to step up, not only on the political side, but on the military side, to a greater extent.”

snip//

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), who co-chaired the Iraq Study Group, said Sunday that the situation in Iraq is “grave, dire, deteriorating” and pushed for a non-military solution to quelling violence and bringing stability to Iraq.

“There is still no military solution to Iraq,” he said. “The military plays a hugely important role, but you must have vigorous, robust efforts to get a national reconciliation.”