The Iraq Study Group says US policy has to change. The President says it will but a UW-political scientist thinks it will be a mixed bag
The UW's Jon Pevehouse says some of the Study Group's recommendations will be followed even if the administration may not give them credit. We'll probably see a drawdown of troops but when and at what pace is uncertain.
One of the key recommendations in the report calls for dip0lomatic talks with Iran and Syria. But since we have so little common ground now, Pevehouse doesn't think they have a tremendous interest in helping the U.S.
On the other hand, Pevehouse says both countries have their own insurgent problems and having a destabilized neighbor in Iraq with armed insurgent groups running freely is not in Iran and Syria's best interest either.
And what of the President's dream of Iraq becoming a shining example of democracy in the region? Pevehouse believes the administration still hopes that can happen but without stabilization, he says, there can be no democracy.