Bush must change Iraq strategy, say top Republicans

Two top Republicans dismissed President George Bush’s pleas for patience on Iraq and proposed legislation demanding a new strategy by mid-October to restrict the mission of US troops.

The proposal, by veteran senators John Warner and Richard Lugar, came as the Pentagon admitted that fewer Iraqi battalions were able to operate on their own.

“American military and diplomatic strategy in Iraq must adjust to the reality that sectarian factionalism is not likely to abate any time soon and probably cannot be controlled from the top,” the Warner-Lugar proposal stated.

Democrats and the White House were dismissive of the proposal but it could attract significant support from Republican colleagues who are frustrated by Iraq but reluctant to break ranks with their party or force the hand of a wartime president.

The two senators are considered the Republican Party’s foremost national security experts. Warner was the long-time chairman of the Armed Services Committee until stepping down last year, while Lugar is the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

The legislation also draws heavily from existing Republican-backed proposals, increasing the chances of attracting support.

It would require Bush to submit by October 16 a plan to “transition US combat forces from policing the civil strife or sectarian violence in Iraq” to a narrow set of missions – protecting Iraqi borders, targeting terrorists, protecting US assets and training Iraqi forces.

The Bill suggests the plan be ready for action by next year.

But Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, balked at the proposal because it would not require Bush to implement the strategy.

He said he preferred the legislation that the Senate would vote on next week that would order combat troops to be out of Iraq by next spring.

Warner and Lugar “put a lot of faith in the president – that he will voluntarily change course and voluntarily begin to reduce the large US combat footprint in Iraq”, said Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley.

Earlier yesterday, Reid dismissed as too soft a separate proposal supported by several Republicans and Democrats that would require Bush to adopt the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, intended to pave the way for a 2008 withdrawal.

“If you give this president a choice, he will stay hunkered down in Iraq for years to come,” Reid said.

Bush spokesman Tony Fratto said the White House would review the Warner-Lugar measure, “but we believe the new way forward strategy – which became fully operational less than a month ago – deserves the time to succeed”.

In addition to requiring a new military strategy, the legislation calls on Bush to seek renewed authorisation for the war, which Congress gave him in 2002. Many members claim the authorisation, which led to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, was limited to approval of deposing Saddam Hussein and searching for weapons of mass destruction.

Through top aides and in private meetings and phone calls, Bush has repeatedly asked Congress to hold off on demanding a change in the course of the war until September, when the top US commander, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker, deliver a fresh assessment of progress.