Democrats move against troop plans

DEMOCRATS took the first step toward a wartime repudiation of US President George W Bush yesterday, convening a Senate committee to endorse legislation declaring that the deployment of additional troops to Iraq is “not in the national interest”.

“We better be damn sure we know what we’re doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder,” said

Senator Chuck Hagel, the only Republican on the committee to announce support for the measure.