Several weeks ago, with much media fanfare, the Baker-Hamilton Committee submitted to President Bush its long-awaited, bipartisan report on the US war in Iraq. On balance, the report provided Bush with a face-saving strategy for pulling out all US combat forces by the beginning of 2008. The Baker-Hamilton report favors an increase of US advisers being embedded inside Iraqi troops and direct negotiations with regional powers Iran and Syria. Bush, however, almost immediately distanced himself from key proposals in the report. Why does Bush defy public opinion by pursuing this unpopular war? The answer, argues Manning Marable, lies not in America's need to "combat Islamic terrorism" but in the economic necessity for the US to control international markets and valuable natural resources, such as oil.