If hints from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group are any indication, the ISG meeting next week with President Bush should offer some of the “fresh perspective” the President is seeking from Defense Secretary-designee and ISG member Robert Gates. ISG co-chairs former Secretary of State (and Republican) James Baker and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton publicly have indicated there is a middle ground for the war in Iraq between the status quo and opting out now. The President, in his televised press conference Wednesday, said that his Administration would “work with members of Congress; we will work with the Baker-Hamilton Commission. … We will continue to adjust to achieve the objective.” Bush then said that “stay the course … doesn’t mean staying stuck on a strategy or tactics that may not be working.”
The Pentagon announced new long-term agreements with four defense companies May 13 to develop and produce large numbers of low-cost cruise missiles. And while the effort will focus mostly on the Army to start, it pairs with Air Force efforts to find more affordable munitions.