Pale Rider
07-07-2007, 05:23 PM
Two more Republican senators join critics of Iraq policy
Jul 7 07:06 AM US/Eastern
The tide of Republican defections from President George W. Bush's camp widened Saturday when two more US senators joined the chorus of critics of his Iraq policy, demanding change.
But while expressing sharp disagreement with the strategy of "surging" the number of US troops in Iraq, Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire stopped short of backing legislation that would force the White House to begin a drawdown of forces.
"It should be clear to the president that there needs to be a new strategy," said Alexander told The Los Angeles Times. "Our policy in Iraq is drifting."
Gregg, who up to now had belonged to the camp of hardliners on Iraq, said in an interview with the same newspaper that attempts to put down the Iraqi insurgency with higher numbers of US troops "don't seem to be making a lot of progress."
It is vital to have "a clear blueprint for how we were going to draw down," he said.
The new cracks in the Republican front opened just three days after Bush urged Americans to support his policy of maintaining 159,000 US troops in Iraq, arguing that if they were to quit Iraq prematurely Al-Qaeda terrorists would bring the war to US soil.
Withdrawing troops "based on politics, not on the advice and recommendation of our military commanders, would not be in our national interest," the president told members of the West Virginia Air National Guard as they celebrated Independence Day on Wednesday.
The White House has urged Congressional Republicans to maintain a united front on Iraq at least until September, when top US military commanders in Iraq are to present their assessment of the effectiveness of the 30,000-troop surge, which was begun by Bush early this year.
But on Thursday, Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico jolted the Republican establishment by publicly announcing that his patience had run out and he was "unwilling" to continue lending his support to "our current strategy."
A couple of months ago, just two US Republican senators, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon, had openly opposed the current Iraq policy.
But the floodgates opened two weeks ago when Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded change in a statement on the Senate floor.
Senator George Voinovich of Ohio echoed Lugar's concerns in a letter to the president, while Senator John Warner of Virginia, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Lugar for speaking out.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070707110621.8uet8etg&show_article=1
Jul 7 07:06 AM US/Eastern
The tide of Republican defections from President George W. Bush's camp widened Saturday when two more US senators joined the chorus of critics of his Iraq policy, demanding change.
But while expressing sharp disagreement with the strategy of "surging" the number of US troops in Iraq, Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire stopped short of backing legislation that would force the White House to begin a drawdown of forces.
"It should be clear to the president that there needs to be a new strategy," said Alexander told The Los Angeles Times. "Our policy in Iraq is drifting."
Gregg, who up to now had belonged to the camp of hardliners on Iraq, said in an interview with the same newspaper that attempts to put down the Iraqi insurgency with higher numbers of US troops "don't seem to be making a lot of progress."
It is vital to have "a clear blueprint for how we were going to draw down," he said.
The new cracks in the Republican front opened just three days after Bush urged Americans to support his policy of maintaining 159,000 US troops in Iraq, arguing that if they were to quit Iraq prematurely Al-Qaeda terrorists would bring the war to US soil.
Withdrawing troops "based on politics, not on the advice and recommendation of our military commanders, would not be in our national interest," the president told members of the West Virginia Air National Guard as they celebrated Independence Day on Wednesday.
The White House has urged Congressional Republicans to maintain a united front on Iraq at least until September, when top US military commanders in Iraq are to present their assessment of the effectiveness of the 30,000-troop surge, which was begun by Bush early this year.
But on Thursday, Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico jolted the Republican establishment by publicly announcing that his patience had run out and he was "unwilling" to continue lending his support to "our current strategy."
A couple of months ago, just two US Republican senators, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon, had openly opposed the current Iraq policy.
But the floodgates opened two weeks ago when Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded change in a statement on the Senate floor.
Senator George Voinovich of Ohio echoed Lugar's concerns in a letter to the president, while Senator John Warner of Virginia, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Lugar for speaking out.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070707110621.8uet8etg&show_article=1