'Ball in President's Court,' Says Key Senator

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2006 — -- Democrats immediately embraced the Iraq Study Group report urging a change of course in Iraq today, but President Bush committed himself only to consider the panel's recommendations -- and its frank criticism of administration policy in Iraq -- "very seriously."

"The president has the ball in his court now. It is up to President Bush to implement the recommendations of this commission," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"The bipartisan Iraq Study Group has concluded that the president's Iraq policy has failed and must be changed," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

"If the president is serious about the need for change in Iraq, he will find Democrats ready to work with him in a bipartisan fashion to find a way to end the war as quickly as possible," Pelosi said.

The report assesses conditions in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating" and makes 79 recommendations for changing U.S. strategy in the war.

It recommends that U.S. military troops move from a leading role to a supporting role, withdrawing or at least pulling back most combat troops by early 2008 and increasing the number of American trainers embedded in Iraqi units.

It also recommends engaging with Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, an approach President Bush has rejected to date because of those countries' ties to terrorism.

"The report represents another blow at the policy of 'Stay the course' that this administration has followed," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

As Democrats called the report a repudiation of Bush's administration policy, the president was cooler, calling it "interesting."

He declined to commit to enacting any of its recommendations until he had read the 142-page document.

After meeting with panel members at the White House, he called it "a very tough assessment of the situation in Iraq" and said he would take it "very seriously.

White House spokesman Tony Snow was more positive, declaring the White House "pleased" with the report.

"There's nothing surprising in it," Snow said.