Republican Senators Call For End to Iraq War, But Only After Bush Leaves Office

The International Herald Tribune reports:

A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the party: Call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but wait until President George W. Bush is almost out of office.

The majority Democrats deemed the proposal a nonstarter and underscored on Friday the difficulty Congress has in striking a bipartisan compromise about the war. What attracts Democrats has repelled Republicans and vice versa, making it impossible so far to find middle ground.

"I don't support it at all," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "It doesn't do anything."

The proposal, by Republican Sen. George Voinovich, would require that Bush change the mission of U.S. troops from combat to primarily support roles, such as training Iraqi security forces and protecting U.S. infrastructure in Iraq. His legislation would set a goal of completing such a mission transition within 15 months.

If enacted immediately, that timeline would not kick in until Bush's last couple of weeks in office.

"That's very courageous," Reid quipped when a reporter asked him Friday about the proposal.

Co-sponsors of the bill include Sen. Lamar Alexander, Elizabeth Dole and Norm Coleman, all Republicans. Of the sponsors, only Voinovich is not up for re-election in 2008.

In response to Reid's rejection, a Voinovich spokesman said the senator "will continue to work for a bipartisan, nonpolitical compromise so our nation finally speaks with one voice."

Likewise, Alexander said the country is ready for consensus on the war.

"It is inexcusable for the Senate to keep lecturing Baghdad about being in a political stalemate when we continue to be stuck in our own political stalemate on Iraq," he said in an e-mailed statement Friday.

The Senate is in the midst of wrapping up debate on a $672 billion (€474 billion) defense policy bill that would authorize more than a one-half trillion dollars (€350 billion) in annual defense spending and $150 billion (€106 billion) for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including $23 billion (€16 billion) added for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

The bill, on track to be passed on Monday, also would make it easier for Iraqi refugees to apply for U.S. visas. An amendment by Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, adopted on Thursday, would provide 5,000 special immigrant visas each year for five years; the new visas would be given to Iraqis who fear retribution because they worked for the U.S. government in Iraq.

Senate Democrats tried to attach legislation ordering an end to combat but repeatedly failed to muster the 60 votes needed to overcome parliamentary hurdles.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he worked closely with Voinovich until late Thursday in the hopes of striking a compromise. Levin wants to set the goal in nine months, but acknowledges he lacks the votes to pass it.

After Voinovich suggested extending the goal to 15 months, Democratic support dissipated, said Levin.

"To try to put this off until after the election, rather than a reasonable period of completion, I believe would be to unnecessarily introduce a political element to what is a bipartisan effort," he said.

Voinovich, Alexander and Coleman have been outspoken critics of Bush's war strategy, citing voter frustration with what they say seems an open-ended military commitment in Iraq. Coleman in particular has become a popular political target by anti-war groups hoping to replace him with a Democratic candidate willing to demand troop withdrawals.

But each of the Republican senators has rejected Democratic legislation that includes a timetable for troop withdrawals, contending they do not want to tie the hands of military generals and a wartime president.

While the defense policy bill approves war spending for next year, it does not guarantee it; Bush will have to wait for Congress to pass a separate appropriations bill that transfers money to the military's coffers.

Democratic leaders say the recent passage of a stopgap spending bill that funds the Pentagon at 2007 levels gives the military enough money to keep the war going for a few more months. A spending bill to pay for combat through next September might not be passed until early next year, officials said.

White House Rejects GOP Call On Iraq

Senators Warner and Lugar's proposal to review strategy and issue a new plan to limit the military mission is called 'premature.'

The LATimes reports:

The White House on Sunday rejected a call by two leading Republican senators to submit plans to start redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end, saying that doing so would be premature before military commanders present a major progress report in September.

"They've done a useful service in indicating the kinds of things that we should be thinking about. But the time to begin that process is September," national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley said on ABC's "This Week." "And the opening shot really ought to be heard from the commanders on the ground who can make an assessment of where we are in our current strategy."

Hadley's appearances on four Sunday talk shows demonstrated the difficult task President Bush faces in trying to stem Republican defections on his Iraq policy after last week's congressionally mandated report, which showed that the Iraqi government had failed to make substantial progress on key political goals.

Most Senate Democrats support a plan by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to force Bush to start redeploying U.S. troops within 120 days of its enactment, with only a limited presence remaining after April 30, 2008. Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to move that proposal through the Senate, but more Republicans are publicly questioning Bush's Iraq policy as the violence continues after the troop buildup intended to halt it.

"I think we need a new strategy," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I think most senators do, and the country does, and I wouldn't be surprised if the president does."

In that environment, Hadley was careful not to be too critical of Sens. John W. Warner of Virginia and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, respected Republicans on military and foreign affairs. They proposed legislation Friday that would require Bush to unveil a plan by Oct. 16 limiting the military mission in Iraq to protecting U.S. interests, training Iraqi forces, guarding the border and fighting terrorists.

Hadley noted that Warner and Lugar did not call for "an arbitrary withdrawal deadline or a withdrawal schedule."

"All they're simply saying is we need to think about now how we can transition to a new phase in Iraq when U.S. forces may have a different role," Hadley said on "Fox News Sunday." But asked if the White House "could live with" legislation to that effect, Hadley replied bluntly, "No."

Bush is set to receive a progress report in September from the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Administration officials have suggested that the report will include options for new strategies.

Appearing on ABC, Lugar and Warner said they were not directly challenging the president.

Warner said he expected Bush to eventually come out with a modified strategy that would reflect "what's on the ground," and he and Lugar wanted the president to accelerate the process.

"We're trying to force the president to change the strategy now," Warner said. "I mean, they're in daily contact with Petraeus. It's not as if suddenly something burst upon the scene in September."

Prospects for the senators' proposal are complicated because of opposition from Democrats and from the White House. Senior Democratic aides have said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) prefers the plan by Levin and Reed, which has binding withdrawal dates.

On Sunday, Lugar chastised Reid for that approach.

"We really don't have the power in Congress right now to bind the president to specific dates or specific policies," Lugar said, apart from cutting funding for troops, something he insisted Democrats and Republicans "are not prepared to do."

Reed said on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" show that he felt Petraeus was ready to propose a new policy before September.

"I got the impression from Gen. Petraeus that he wasn't waiting," said Reed, who was in Iraq last weekend. "Now he might be overruled by people in the White House and, you know, wait until September. But he seemed very eager to come forward as quickly as possible with a new direction and policy."

Reed said he and Levin would introduce their legislation as early as today. Calling the prospects of anything changing by September "very bleak indeed," Reed said, "I don't think we should have to wait."

Bush on Thursday appealed to lawmakers to give the 28,500 additional troops more time as he issued the Iraq status report to Congress.

Hadley said Sunday that the report showed the Iraqis were making progress in some areas, such as forming an election commission and starting the process to amend the country's constitution. The Bush administration is pressuring the parliament to cancel a month-long break in August, and Hadley said the lawmakers had agreed to work six days a week through the end of July to try to resolve power-sharing and other issues.