WP: Democrats Urge Bush on New Iraq Plan [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats Urge Bush on New Iraq Plan
By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006

A day after an American general asserted that a U.S.-Iraqi security plan for Baghdad had failed to stem deadly attacks, Senate and House Democratic leaders today urged President Bush to "change course" and support a phased redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq by year's end.

"The escalating sectarian violence coupled with the recent increase in the number of dead and wounded Americans are but the latest indications that neither the current U.S. plan, nor that of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, will bring stability and security to Iraq," read a letter to Bush from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and 10 other Democratic leaders.

Bush suggested in a speech today that his administration is committed to a military presence in Iraq as part of the war on terror.

"My message to the United States of America is: Victory in Iraq is vital for the security of a generation of Americans who are coming up," Bush told a National Republican Senatorial Committee reception in downtown Washington. "And so we will stay in Iraq, we will fight in Iraq and we will win in Iraq."

The letter to Bush comes less than three weeks before the mid-term elections, in which Democrats hope to gain control of the House and Senate, and as the death toll for American troops in Iraq reached 74 this month. Almost 2,800 U.S. troops have died since the conflict began more than three years ago....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102000512.html