“A draft report on strategies for Iraq, which will be debated here by a bipartisan commission beginning on Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria, but sets no timetables for a military withdrawal, according to officials who have seen all or parts of the document,” the New York Times is set to report in page one Monday leads.

Excerpts:

While the diplomatic strategy appears likely to be accepted, with some amendments, by the 10-member Iraq Study Group, members of the commission and outsiders involved in its work said they expected a potentially divisive debate about timetables for beginning an American withdrawal.

In interviews, several officials said that announcing a major withdrawal is the only way to persuade the government of Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri Kamal al-Maliki, to focus on creating an effective Iraqi military force.

One proposal would involve putting more American trainers into Iraqi military units in a last-ditch improvement effort, coupled with a withdrawal that in a year would leave between 70,000 and 80,000 American troops in the country, compared with about 150,000 now.

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Source: Raw Story