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GUEST: Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, and runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com, author of “Mission Accomplished: Tomdispatch Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters

A commission on the war in Iraq recommends new and enhanced diplomacy so that the United States can “begin to move its combat forces” out of Iraq responsibly. The Iraq Study Group, consisting of five Republicans and five Democrats and co-chaired by James Baker and Lee H. Hamilton, worked on its report for eight months. President Bush received the report at the White House and pledged to act in “a timely fashion,” saying the report gives a “tough assessment” of conditions in Iraq. According to The Associated Press, the report describes the current situation in Iraq as “grave and deteriorating” and warns of the risk of a “slide toward catastrophe” both within Iraq and throughout the region. The commission is expected to advise gradually changing the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq from combat, to training and supporting Iraqi units, with a goal of pulling back American combat troops by early 2008. It is also expected to recommend a greater effort to involve Iraq’s neighbors Iran and Syria to stop supporting violence in Iraq. President Bush has rejected establishing timetables for withdrawing troops and has said he wasn’t looking for “some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq.” The Iraq report comes as Robert Gates, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday said, a fresh approach was needed in Iraq.