Senators launch scathing attack on Bush's plan

President George Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq ran into a huge wall of criticism from the Democrat-controlled Congress as administration officials drew confrontational, sometimes mocking, challenges from all sides.

Defence secretary Robert Gates said in response that the administration might abandon the increase if the Iraqi government did not do its part, but provided no timetable.

“I think most of us, in our minds, are thinking of it as a matter of months, not 18 months or two years,” he told the House Armed Services Committee.

Bush and top members of his national security team sought to rally support for the troop build-up a day after he announced his plan for turning around a conflict that has lasted almost four years and cost more than 3,000 American military lives and the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Instead, Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice found themselves embroiled in the first pitched exchanges in a battle that is likely to dominate Congress for months or longer and is already shaping the 2008 presidential election campaign.

“I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it’s carried out,” Republican senator Chuck Hagel, a potential 2008 presidential contender, told Rice.

Democratic senator Bill Nelson noted his own past support for the administration on the war but said he could not continue, declaring: “I have not been told the truth over and over again by administration witnesses, and the American people have not been told the truth.”

Meanwhile a new AP-Ipsos poll found approval for Bush’s handling of Iraq hovering near a record low, showing 29% of Americans approved and 68% disapproved.

Bush, visiting with troops at Fort Benning, Georgia, warned that the troop increase “is not going to yield immediate results. It’s going to take a while”.

His plan, outlined in a televised address to the nation yesterday, would raise troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 – from 132,000 to 153,500 – at a cost of $5.6bn (€4.4bn). It would also have the Iraqi government increase its forces and do more to quell sectarian violence.

“American patience is limited, and obviously if the Iraqis fail to maintain their commitments, we’ll have to revisit our strategy,” Gates said.

At one point Gates, just three weeks into the job, told politicians, “I would confess I’m no expert on Iraq.” Later, asked about reaching the right balance between American and Iraqi forces, he told the panel he was “no expert on military matters”.

Committee members pressed Gates, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, on an exit strategy for the US.

“At the outset of the strategy, it’s a mistake to talk about an exit strategy,” he said.

Gates, in testimony to the committee and earlier at a news conference, said he was requesting an increase in the size of the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 troops over the next five years.

He also said the Pentagon would recall to duty sooner than planned some National Guard and Reserve troops who had already served year-long tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.