Bush team faces hostile Democrats over new plan

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) President George W Bush and his top military and diplomatic team tried to convince a hostile Democratic-led Congress and a skeptical US public today that his plan to send more troops to Iraq will work.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, heading to Capitol Hill for an expected grilling from lawmakers, insisted to reporters that Bush's new plan will put more pressure on Iraqis to take over their own security.

Democrats who want a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq to start in four to six months were unswayed. As Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, its Democratic chairman offered a tough view.

''I believe the president's strategy is not a solution,'' said the chairman, Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden. ''I believe it's a tragic mistake.'' Speaking to reporters at the White House, Gates said the US deployment of an extra 21,500 troops will take place in waves -- ''there will be no D-Day'' -- and indicated they might not all be sent if the Iraqi government is not keeping its end of the bargain.

While Bush gave no timetable for the Iraqis to perform in his White House address yesterday night, Gates said Washington should know whether the Iraqis are capable within a couple of months.

''The timetable for the introduction of additional US forces will provide ample opportunity early on, and before many of the additional US troops actually arrive in Iraq, to evaluate the progress of this endeavor and whether the Iraqis are fulfilling their commitments to us,'' he said.

Under the new plan, Iraqi troops are to help sweep neighborhoods clean of insurgents regardless of sectarian influences. Gates was pressed on whether radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, headed of the Mehdi Army, could be reined in under this policy.

''What I will say is that all parts of Baghdad are going to be involved in this campaign, including Sadr City,'' Gates said.

Democrats, and some Republicans, were solidly opposed to the troop increase.

''This is a dangerously wrong-headed strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at a great cost,'' said Nebraska Republican Sen Chuck Hagel.

But Arizona Republican Sen John McCain, who had lobbied hard for a troop increase, said it was the right decision.

''I do not guarantee victory or success with this new strategy. I do guarantee the consequences of failure. If we do fail there's going to be chaos in the region and I believe that we would pay an even heavier price in American blood and treasure,'' McCain told reporters at the White House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, who is seeking bipartisan support for a symbolic vote on Bush's plan, pledged to give the new strategy a careful look.

''This morning I will not prejudge the outcome of the vote on the president's plan, but I will say this: I believe putting more US combat forces in the middle of an Iraqi civil war is a serious mistake,'' he said.

An ABC News-Washington Post poll taken after Bush's address said 61 per cent of Americans surveyed opposed his plan to send more US troops to Iraq, against 36 percent who supported it.

It said 57 per cent think the United States is losing the war and just 29 percent think it is winning.

Rice said the administration would give Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki some breathing space after blunt language by the president. She is headed to the Middle East on Friday but is not expected to go to Baghdad.

''The president was pretty tough last night and we'll be pretty tough today. Give them a little time to now do something, a little breathing space,'' she said in comments monitored by Reuters from a television feed.

Bush was headed to a friendly audience at Ft Benning, Georgia, to argue his case at the Army base for what Democrats denounced as an escalation of the conflict.

REUTERS BDP BD2213