JourneyOnline
The US National Council of Churches is applauding recommendations of a panel which has called for a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and which has also concluded that the Iraq policy of President George W. Bush’s administration is not working.
The report by a group made up of representatives of both the Republican and the Democratic parties urges the Bush administration to push diplomatic efforts with Iran and Syria to prevent a wider regional war in the Middle East.
"While no set of recommendations can right all of the wrongs evolving from the Iraq war, this report does lay groundwork for an end to the war that all sides can find acceptable," the NCC said in its statement. "The president, as well as the newly-elected Congress, needs to understand the opportunity presented by this report."
In a statement issued on 6 December, the Iraq Study Group labelled Iraq’s security situation as "grave and deteriorating".
The NCC, the largest grouping of Protestant and Orthodox churches in the United States, applauded the report for its support of "multilateral engagement in addressing the situation in Iraq".
The NCC noted that the recommendations of the study group, whose members include former US Secretary of State James Baker, a long-time advisor and friend to President Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, "generally resonate" with the earlier statements by US church leaders associated with the NCC.
