“After a tsunami of advance publicity, the commission of five Republicans and five Democrats [that constituted the Iraq Study Group] announced at a packed news conference in Washington on December 6 [2006] that ‘the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating,’ and urged a complete overhaul of the president’s [Bush’s] strategy. The panel, led by [former Chief of Staff] James Baker and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman [from Indiana] and the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center, called for the pullback of all American combat brigades over the next fifteen months and ‘a new diplomatic offensive’ with Iraq’s neighbors, specifically direct talks with Iran and Syria, to help build stability in the region.” [Editor’s note: the author incorrectly identified Lee Hamilton as a Republican.]
– Elisabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, Page 303