Bush must show Iraq plan before elections: Democrats

Washington, Oct 23: Key Senate Democrats urged the White House today not to wait until after the US congressional elections in two weeks to give the Iraqi government a timetable to assume a larger role in securing the country.

The top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Sen Carl Levin, said the Iraq strategy blueprint reportedly being drafted for President George W Bush specifying ways to reduce sectarian violence should also include a schedule for pulling out US forces.

''We shouldn't wait 'til the end of the year to come up with milestones. We ought to be doing that now. We should have done it long ago,'' Levin of Michigan said on ''Fox News Sunday.'' Voter discontent with the Iraq war is one of the main reasons Bush's Republicans are said to be increasingly at risk of losing control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the November 7 elections.

The expectation of U.S. troop withdrawal must be the linchpin of any plan, Levin added. ''Because without that pressure of our troops leaving Iraq a few months down the road, the Iraqis are not going to do what only they can do, which is to work out those political differences,'' he said.

Campaigning ahead of the elections, Democrats and many Republicans have called for Bush to overhaul his Iraq strategy because of intensifying violence from insurgents and rival sects that threatens to tip the country into open civil war.

The New York Times said the White House plan was being formulated by Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the top US military and civilian officials in Iraq, along with Pentagon officials.

The Times said in its Sunday editions the plan will include a timetable with milestones for the Iraqi government, including the disarming of militias and an expanded security role.

The paper said the plan will go to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki before 2007 and be carried out over the next year or so, and that details were still being worked out.

Sen John Kerry said Bush should not wait until after election day to release the plan.

''I think it's immoral to have the lives of young Americans being put on the line, waiting for an election day event or strategy,'' the Massachusetts Democrat said on ABC's ''This Week.'' ''If you've got a better strategy, Mr. President, we deserve to have it now.''

White House dispute

But a White House spokeswoman disputed the Times' account.

''The story is not accurate, but we are constantly developing new tactics to achieve our goal,'' White House spokeswoman Nicole Guillemard told Reuters.

And the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen.

John Warner of Virginia, who has recently begun to criticize the handling of the war, said on Fox that setting a timetable for withdrawal would be the wrong tactic.

''We should not indicate a fixed lock-in, because the situation is very dynamic. It's gotten worse,'' Warner said. ''It's gotten fractured.'' Bush, when asked last week whether a change in Iraq strategy should come now instead of after the elections, reiterated that he was flexible to adjustments in policy.

But in remarks to ABC he gave no indication that he would be open to the major overhaul of tactics his critics demand and White House officials see as unlikely anytime soon.

Bush also reaffirmed his support for Maliki. ''In my judgment, Maliki has got what it takes to lead a unity government,'' he told ''This Week'' in remarks first broadcast Wednesday and aired again today.

While saying he understands the difficulties Maliki faces, Bush added, ''I'm patient. I'm not patient forever. And I'm not patient with dawdling.'' Senators on the Fox show were divided over whether Maliki could achieve the steps the president puts forward.

''I think we have no other course but to give him our confidence and our support,'' said Warner. ''The president has been very forthright and tough on Maliki.'' Sen Joseph Biden of Delaware said, however, that with the new plan the president needs to give Maliki a message that he is serious about the milestones and their timing.

Reuters

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