Katie Couric's Notebook: Bush's Next Move
Video: When the bi-partisan report was finally issued, it used words to describe the situation that President Bush could never bring himself to speak.
Words like "grave," "deteriorating" and "catastrophe." In its bluntest assessment, the report said flatly the policy in Iraq is "not working."
To some, this isn't surprising. But it is sobering. And it is a sharp rebuke to the policy the United States has been pursuing for years. As the group's co-chair James Baker put it, "we do not recommend a stay the course policy...that policy is no longer viable."
The panel has offered 79 recommendations that it believes ARE viable, including diplomacy and quote a "new political consensus" that can eventually bring American troops home.
President Bush has promised to act on the report "in a timely fashion." The next move is his.
That's a page from my notebook.