the Middle East.

To attain the goals we have outlined, changes in course must be made
both outside and inside Iraq. Our report offers a comprehensive
strategy to build regional and international support for stability in
Iraq, as it encourages the Iraqi people to assume control of their own
destiny. It offers a responsible transition.

Externally, the United States should immediately begin to employ all
elements of American power to construct a regional mechanism that can
support, rather than retard, progress in Iraq. Internally, the Iraqi
government must take the steps required to achieve national
reconciliation, reduce violence, and improve the daily lives of
Iraqis. Efforts to implement these external and internal strategies
must begin now and must be undertaken in concert with one another.

This responsible transition can allow for a reduction in the U.S.
presence in Iraq over time.

A. The External Approach: Building an International Consensus

The United States must build a new international consensus for
stability in Iraq and the region.

In order to foster such consensus, the United States should embark on
a robust diplomatic effort to establish an international support
structure intended to stabilize Iraq and ease tensions in other
countries in the region. This support structure should include every
country that has an interest in averting a chaotic Iraq, including all
of Iraq's neighbors--Iran and Syria among them. Despite the well-known
differences between many of these countries, they all share an
interest in avoiding the horrific consequences that would flow from a
chaotic Iraq, particularly a humanitarian catastrophe and regional
destabilization.

A reinvigorated diplomatic effort is required because it is clear that
the Iraqi government cannot succeed in governing, defending, and
sustaining itself by relying on U.S. military and economic support
alone. Nor can the Iraqi government succeed by relying only on U.S.
military support in conjunction with Iraqi military and police
capabilities. Some states have been withholding commitments they could
make to support Iraq's stabilization and reconstruction. Some states
have been actively undermining stability in Iraq. To achieve a
political solution within Iraq, a broader international support
structure is needed.

1. The New Diplomatic Offensive

Iraq cannot be addressed effectively in isolation from other major
regional issues, interest