NYT, pg1: Bush Says He’s Open to Change in Iraq, but ...

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Says He’s Open to Change in Iraq, but ...
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: November 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — President Bush spent more than an hour on Monday with the independent panel examining strategic options for Iraq, and cautioned afterward that while he was open to new ideas, it was important for “people making suggestions to recognize that the best military options depend upon conditions on the ground.”

The president’s brief remarks seemed aimed at Democrats, who are demanding a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, beginning in a matter of months. Mr. Bush has steadfastly resisted any timetable, and his comments on Monday offered the first hint of how he might respond.

Addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Bush shed little light on the substance of his hour-and-15-minute session with members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, and Lee H. Hamilton, the former congressman. The president said that they had “a good discussion,” and that he was “looking forward to interesting ideas.”

Mr. Bush is under intense pressure to change course in Iraq, from Democrats and from some Republicans. One leading Republican, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview on Monday that the election results were a clear cry for a new Iraq strategy....

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Democrats, for their part, continued their offensive, saying the American people had given them a mandate. In a news conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who will be the next Armed Services chairman, accused the administration of “ignoring obvious reality on the ground in Iraq, that we’re getting deeper and deeper into a hole that we should stop digging.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/washington/14policy.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin