Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee gives dismal view of Iraq

Aftermath of a double bomb attack in Baghdad yesterday, an attempt to assassinate Iraq's Minister of Industry

WASHINGTON The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a Bush loyalist offered his darkest assessment of Iraq yet on Thursday, suggesting the war there was "drifting sideways" without a firm commitment from its government to disarm militias and rebuild the country.

Returning from a recent trip to the region, Sen. John Warner said the military had done what it could, and if after three months the Iraqis have made no progress to calm ethnic violence and hasten reconstruction, then Congress will have to make some "bold decisions."

Warner did not say what he thinks Congress should do but said all options will be considered. Lawmakers have suggested various remedies, including a timetable to pull out U.S. troops and dividing the country into smaller, independent ethnic states.

"There is progress being made in certain areas," Warner said, but "you just find that so many communities don't even have drinking water. ... It seems to me that the situation is simply drifting sideways."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune