White House defies Congress, public to push Iraq surge
UNITED STATES: The White House stood by President George W.
Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, despite growing public
opposition and a chorus of criticism from lawmakers in Congress.
Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States needed to remain
steadfast in the face of escalating violence in Iraq, defending the
administration's plan to deploy an additional 21,500 troops.
"People are trying to make a judgment on whether or not this plan is
going to work I think far too early," he said in an interview with
Newsweek. "And I think in fairness to the Iraqis, they need to be given
an opportunity to follow through on their commitments."
He cautioned against the phased withdrawal backed by Democrats,
saying Iraq would collapse into chaos and the United States would lose
stature in the world.
"All of a sudden, the United States, which is the bulwark of security
in that part of world, would I think no longer - could no longer be
counted on by our friends and allies that have put so much into this
struggle," he said.
Congress is due to vote in early February on a non-binding motion
criticizing the surge in troops, with Democrats and Republicans moving
to prepare other draft resolutions even as the violence in Iraq claimed
more lives with at least 61 killed across the country on Sunday.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer predicted a large number of
lawmakers in Bush's Republican Party - possibly "even a majority" -
would support the resolution condemning the proposed deployment.
"And that will send shockwaves through the White House and through
the country," Schumer told NBC.
Congress also appeared headed for a possible confrontation with Bush
over requests for additional funds for the war, with Schumer and other
lawmakers vowing to pile pressure on the president.
Bush has urged a skeptical US public to give his new strategy a
chance and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CBS that Senate
Republicans were "not going to talk about failure" in Iraq.
"We're going to talk about success," he said. "But we don't want to
allow these places, to become once again where these elements like Al-Qaeda
can operate with impunity and then be prepared to launch attacks on us
again here in America."
But the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
committee, presidential hopeful Joe Biden, challenged the
administration's doomsday predictions. "It's not the American people or
the United States Congress who are emboldening the enemy," he told Fox
News.
"It's the failed policy of this president, going to war without a
strategy, going to war prematurely, going to war without enough troops,
going to war without enough equipment and lastly, now sending 17,500
people in the middle of a city of 6.5 million people with bullseyes on
their back with no plan," he added.
Biden vowed a "full-throated debate" on the plan in the Senate
despite administration promises to move ahead in face of the opposition.
The president faces an uphill battle to gain support for his plan,
with even loyal Republicans like Senator David Vitter of Louisiana
calling it "clearly the final shot." "I think we should be stronger and
clearer about benchmarks," the senator said on NBC, adding his support
for a regional conference that includes Iran and Syria.
"We need to go over and over and over the issue of, is this new troop
level enough to make a difference. Because I think, clearly, we have
been wrong in the past about the adequacy of troop levels," he said.
Democrat-leaning independent Senator Joe Lieberman said Sunday he was
working with Republican Senator John McCain on a text to try to bridge
the divisions.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters including Vietnam War
opponent US actress Jane Fonda took to the streets of Washington to
denounce the president's plan and demand an end to the war.
In Iraq Sunday, US and Iraqi forces killed more than 250 gunmen in a
raging battle north of Najaf in which two US soldiers also died when
their helicopter crashed.
Washington, Monday, AFP |