The United States plans to give the Iraqi government a timetable to address sectarian violence and get a handle on the security situation, and it will threaten penalties if the Iraqis fail to reach US-established benchmarks, The New York Times reported on its website on Saturday.
Citing unnamed senior US officials, the newspaper said details of the blueprint, which is to be presented to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before the end of the year are still being devised. But the officials said that for the first time Iraq was likely to be asked to agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks intended to stabilize the country, the report said.
Although the plan would not threaten Maliki with a withdrawal of American troops, several officials said the administration of President George W. Bush would consider changes in military strategy and other penalties if Iraq balked at adopting it or failed to meet critical benchmarks within it, the paper said.
A senior Pentagon official involved in drafting the blueprint said that Iraqi officials were being consulted as the plan evolved and would be invited to sign off on the milestones before the end of the year, according to The Times.
"If the Iraqis fail to come back to us on this, we would have to conduct a reassessment" of the American strategy in Iraq, the report quotes the official as saying.
The plan is being formulated by General George Casey and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the top military and civilian officials in Iraq, as well as by Pentagon officials. "We're trying to come up with ways to get the Iraqis to step up to the plate, to push them along, because the time is coming," The Times quotes on of the senior officials as saying. "We can't be there forever."
Until now, the Bush administration has avoided using threats of deadlines for progress in Iraq, saying that conditions on the ground would determine how quickly Iraq took on greater responsibility for governing the country and how soon American troops could withdraw, the report said.
The plan also moves the administration closer to an idea advocated by many Democrats, who have called for setting a date for beginning phased withdrawals of American troops from Iraq as a way to compel Iraq's government to resolve its internal divisions and take on more responsibility, according to The Times.