MADELEINE BRAND, host:
And how will the report and its recommendations be received in Iraq and the broader Arab world?
Fawaz Gerges is on the line now from Cairo, where he is a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo.
Welcome to the program.
Professor FAWAS GERGES (Middle East Studies and International Affairs): Thank you.
BRAND: Well, first, what is your reaction to the report?
Prof. GERGES: Well, I don't think we are surprised. I don't think that the report tells us anything that is new to us. We know that the situation in Iraq is very grave. We know that the security situation is spinning out of control.
We know there is no magical solution to Iraq's complex challenges and we know there is an urgent need for a new approach, a new American policy towards the country because there's a consensus in the United States and the international community including the Bush administration that the current American strategy has failed and it has failed dismally.
BRAND: One of the top recommendations in the report is to pull out most combat brigades in a year, by the first quarter of 2008. What effect will that have in Iraq and in the broader Arab world?
Prof. GERGES: Well I think it all depends on how the United States and the international community find ways and means to secure the peace in Iraq. Whether to engage Iraq's neighbors, whether to succeed in bringing the various Iraqi communities together. I fear that the main focus of the report is how to extract American forces from Iraq's killing fields rather than really finding solutions to Iraq's difficult problems.
I think the next stage is - on the part of the Bush administration - is to begin the difficult process of engaging Iraq's neighbors and trying to really bring the international community in to help Iraqi's resolve their simmering difficulties.
BRAND: Well I believe one of the motivations for pulling out the troops, as the report delineates, is to force Iraqis to come up with a solution, that this threat will force them to take control of the situation there in Iraq themselves.
Prof. GERGES: I think it's very logical. The danger is it might be too late. I fear that the very social fabric of Iraq is coming apart. There's a great deal of bloodshed and you know revenge breeds revenge. And the challenge now is to really try to bring the various Iraqi communities together to engage and involve Iraqi's neighbors; in particular, to engage, bond, and try to convince the Iranian leadership not to really poison relations within Iraq further.
BRAND: There has been a lot of talk about bringing in Iran and Syria. What about bringing in the Sunni controlled countries in the region? You're in Egypt at the moment, that is one Sunni Arab country and Saudi Arabia is another -what about them?
Prof. GERGES: Well I think really it's very urgent not only to bring Iran and Syria but also bring Iraq's Sunni communities because as you know, the insurgency, the Sunni dominated insurgency is very much affected by the dominant opinion in Sunni states and Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Jordan.
The danger lies in the fact that the ruling Shiite coalition that is al-Maliki and al-Hakim reject any involvement by Iraq's Sunni state. And this is really where the danger lies. The danger lies in the fact that Iraqi communities are deeply divided over the future direction of their country and this is the most difficult challenge to help Iraqi communities resolve their simmering problems. This is where the challenge, the pivotal challenge lies.
BRAND: Fawaz Gerges, speaking to us from Cairo where he is a visiting professor at the American University there. Fawaz Gerges thank you for joining us.
Prof. GERGES: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
