US Senate panel opposes Iraq troop increase

Washington, Jan 25: A key US Senate committee has brushedaside US President George W. Bush's plea to give his new war strategya chance and passed a resolution opposing the plan to send more troopsto Iraq.

The 12-9 vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterdaydrew less Republican support than expected, given growing doubts inCongress about the wisdom of Bush's decision to add 21,500 troops inBaghdad and Anbar province.

Only one Republican, resolution co-author Sen. Chuck Hagel ofNebraska, voted for it, after accusing the Bush administration ofplaying ''ping-pong'' with American lives.

The measure now goes to the Senate floor for a vote expected nextweek. But the panel's chairman Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat,said it may be rewritten to attract more Republicans who have soured onthe Iraq war.

Bush, a Republican, does not have to abide by the resolution.

Vice President Dick Cheney said a Senate vote would not sway the administration. ''It won't stop us,'' Cheney told CNN.

''We are moving forward ... in terms of this effort, the presidenthas made his decision.'' The resolution was ''not an attempt toembarrass the president,'' Biden, a 2008 presidential hopeful, said.

Rather, it was designed to alert Bush that senators believesending more U S troops into a civil war is ''the wrong way to go,''Biden said. ''It's an attempt to save the president from making asignificant mistake.'' In his State of the Union address on Tuesday,Bush insisted it was not too late for a new Iraq strategy. ''I ask youto give it a chance to work,'' Bush said in the speech to theDemocrat-controlled House of Representatives and Senate.

Biden will seek consensus with the sponsor of another bipartisanresolution critical of the troop increase, Virginia Sen. John Warner, aleading Republican voice on national security.

Warner's resolution takes a softer tone than the one passed by theSenate committee, omitting words such as ''escalating'' to describe thetroop increase.

At the last minute before Wednesday's vote, the Foreign RelationsCommittee changed ''escalating'' to ''increasing,'' with no discernibleeffect.

Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich said he was more skepticalthan ever about Bush's plan but he voted against the resolution becausehe thought it could be characterized as a ''political attack.'' Thecommittee's senior Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, said hewas not confident Bush's plan would succeed, but also opposed theresolution. ''This vote will force nothing on the president, but itwill confirm to our friends and allies that we are divided and indisarray,'' Lugar said.

Hagel, who is considered a presidential possibility, said senatorsmust take a stand on the ''most divisive issue in the country sinceVietnam.'' ''Sure it's tough,'' he said. ''If you wanted a safe job, gosell shoes.'' Biden said the troop increase would take five months tocomplete and warned that if Bush did not change his mind, theresolution would just be the committee's first step to try and changethe war strategy. Several Democrats said they favored rewriting theauthorization of force in Iraq passed by Congress in 2002 to reflectthe new realities in Iraq.

Anti-war protesters planned to converge on Washington on Saturday and pressure Congress to bring U S troops home.

''The president is a lost cause,'' said Tom Andrews, nationaldirector of ''Win Without War.'' ''This is all about Congress now.

This movement is resolved ... to moving forward until Congress does what we elected them to do.''

Reuters>