Senate panel approves no-confidence measure on Bush troop 'surge'

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - A US Senate panel approved a measure condemning President George W. Bush's strategy to pour more US troops into Iraq, dealing the president an unprecedented rebuke.

One day after he pleaded with the country to give his plan a chance to work, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by a vote of 12 to nine, condemned Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, as part of an administration effort to stabilize the war-torn country.

The bipartisan resolution written by the panel's chairman, Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), and fellow Democrat Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), along with Republican senators Olympia Snowe (news, bio, voting record) and Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), criticizes an escalation of US forces in Iraq as "not in the national interest."

"My intention was to send the first of many messages -- direct and unequivocal -- to the president: Stop what you are doing," Biden said during the hearing.

The Democratic chairman added that he was likely to submit even tougher, binding Iraq legislation if Bush fails to heed the message of the proposed symbolic measure.

The committee hearing comes one day after Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address, in which he made his case for additional US troops in Iraq.

Unswayed, however, opposition Democrats after the speech accused the president of "recklessly" leading America into war and called for a withdrawal of US forces, in a blunt rebuttal to the president's address.

The draft bill calls on the United States to "transfer, under an appropriately expedited timeline, responsibility for internal security and halting sectarian violence in Iraq to the government of Iraq and Iraqi security forces."

The text of the resolution also calls on the US administration to "engage nations in the Middle East to develop a regional, internationally sponsored peace and reconciliation process for Iraq," and says Iraqi leaders should lead the way in reaching a political settlement that could lead to peace.

The measure, however, is but one of several proposals slamming Bush's surge plan, including some that would cap the number of troops, cut off funding for the deployment of additional troops or gradually pull US forces from Iraq altogether.

One of the bills deemed to be most acceptable to Republicans -- proposed by leading Republican lawmaker John Warner (news, bio, voting record), former head of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- opposes an escalation in troops and urges the president to reconsider his options.

The Democratic opposition has insisted that Bush will not get "a blank check" as they consider a raft of proposals on Iraq, including bills capping US forces at the existing level or even cutting war funds altogether.

Several who spoke at Wednesday's hearing, including Senator Robert Menendez (news, bio, voting record), said the symbolic censure bill "is the least that can be done" to reflect Americans' displeasure with US Iraq policy.

Among the lawmakers proposing even stiffer resolutions are US senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), John Kerry and Chris Dodd -- all of whom, in addition to Biden, are weighing runs for president in 2008.

Hagel, a Republican, is also mulling a White House run.

Speaking about the surge proposal, Bush late Tuesday told Congress: "I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance for success."

But longtime political analyst Allan Lichtman said the president simply failed to make his case.

"There was a note of resignation about him, almost pleading with the Congress and the American people to please give me one last chance in Iraq -- and knowing that he wasn't going to change one opinion," said Lichtman, a professor of political history at American University in Washington.

As for Bush's laundry list of domestic agenda items, including proposals on the environment, health insurance and immigration, Lichtman said: "There were some good ideas, but it wasn't that they were so compelling and dramatic that they were going change the subject from Iraq."

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070124/ts_alt_afp/usiraqpolitics [link]