CRS Report Reviews Iraq Proposals

IRAQ: POST-SADDAM GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY   
CRS Publication Date:  12/28/2006
Document No.:  RL31339
Author(s):  Kenneth Katzman, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division

Abstract:  Some in Congress - as well as the Iraq Study Group - believe that major new initiatives are required. The Study Group recommendations focus on intensified regional diplomacy to enlist help from neighboring states to calm their protege factions in Iraq. Others believe that U.S. counter-insurgent operations are hampered by insufficient U.S. troop levels, but several Members and outside experts maintain that sectarian violence is placing U.S. forces in the middle of civil war and that setting a timetable for withdrawal, or otherwise reducing U.S. support for the Baghdad government, might force compromise among Iraqi factions. Still others maintain that the U.S. approach should focus not on counter-insurgent combat but on reconstruction and policing of towns and cities cleared of insurgents, including neighborhoods of Baghdad.