POLITICS-IRAQ: CRISIS GROUP SEEKS 'CLEAN BREAK' IN U.S. STRATEGY.

by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2006 (IPS/GIN) -- Warning that Iraq faces "complete disintegration into failed-state chaos," the International Crisis Group (ICG) is calling on the United States to make a "clean break" in its strategy for both Iraq and the wider Middle East region.

In a report released Tuesday, the Brussels-based group endorsed many of the key recommendations submitted two weeks ago by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG), headed by former secretary of state James Baker and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, including initiating direct talks with Iran and Syria, as part of a regional effort to stabilize Iraq.

But the 44-page report, "After Baker-Hamilton: What to Do in Iraq," stressed that some of the ISG recommendations are "not nearly far-reaching enough."

It criticized, in particular, the ISG's characterization of the current government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "broadly representative of the Iraqi people" and its recommendation that Washington work to strengthen it.

"Hollowed-out and fatally weakened, the Iraqi state today," the report asserted, "is prey to armed militias, sectarian forces and a political class that, by putting short-term personal benefit ahead of long-term national interests, is complicit in Iraq's tragic destruction.

"The government and security forces should not be treated as privileged allies to be bolstered. They are but one among many parties to the conflict," the report stressed, adding that all Iraqi parties, as well as their foreign backers, must be brought to the table if the worst is to be avoided.