U.S. options in Iraq could soon narrow, ranging from unpleasant to unthinkable

By Warren P. Strobel
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Now that moderate Republicans have told President Bush that time is running out on his Iraq policy, he'll have to demonstrate real progress in a matter of months or face choices that range from the highly unpleasant to the nearly unthinkable.


September, only four months away, is increasingly looking like a deadline. By then, it should be known whether Bush's "surge" strategy of increased U.S. troops in Iraq is having an impact and whether Iraqis have undertaken long-promised changes to ease sectarian warfare. The 2008 U.S. presidential election will be in full cry.


After more than four years of conflict in Iraq, analysts say, there aren't many options left.


As former U.S. officials Carlos Pascual and Kenneth Pollack, now scholars at the Brookings Institution, wrote recently:


"The four basic options facing this - and the next - administration are victory, stability, withdrawal and containment. Victory, as defined by President Bush, is not currently attainable."


Here is a look at some of the American options:


STAYING THE COURSE

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