Second Republican opposes Bush Iraq plan
(AP)Updated: 2007-01-18 08:36
Bush announced on Jan. 10 that he planned to increase the 130,000 US forces in Iraq with an additional 21,500 troops.
The resolutions in Congress seemed likely to be largely symbolic and they would not affect the Pentagon's war budget or challenge the president's authority over US forces. Such votes, however, could be a shot across the bow to Bush.
The resolutions also would help Democrats measure GOP support for more aggressive legislative tactics, such as cutting off funds for the war.
Such a vote puts many Republicans in an uncomfortable position. They will have to decide whether to stay loyal to an unpopular GOP president and risk angering voters disillusioned by the war or buck the party line.
Republicans are crafting alternative proposals, including a House bill introduced by Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, that would vow to protect funding for US troops in combat. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is considering a resolution expressing support for the findings by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Wednesday she thinks there should be a cap on US troops in Iraq and said she wants "to condition American aid to the Iraqis on their meeting political benchmarks."
"I am opposed to this escalation," she said on NBC's "Today" program. "The Bush administration has frankly failed to put any leverage on this government," said Clinton, considered a likely 2008 Democratic presidential front-runner, although she has not yet entered the race.
Bush has been trying to sell his revised war plan to the public in a series of television interviews. He told PBS's Jim Lehrer in an interview this week that keeping his old policies in place would lead to "a slow failure," but withdrawing from Iraq, as some Democrats and other critics suggest, would result in an "expedited failure."
Several GOP members of Congress have offered only lukewarm endorsements of Bush's plan. Lining up behind Bush in the Senate are Republican stalwarts and a few members who have long backed sending more troops to Iraq, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
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