Senior Republicans and commanders in Iraq are at odds over what happens to the ongoing troop surge once Gen. David Petraeus files a status report with President Bush in September. Some jittery Republicans, who lost control of Congress in the 2006 election largely on the bogged-down Iraq War, want troops to start coming home. But commanders say the reinforcement plan, if it is going to secure Baghdad and bring peace, must continue.
The GOP-war commanders split could present President Bush with a tough choice this fall: side with his generals or the GOP. With most Democrats favoring a time line for withdrawal, only Republicans up until now have generally backed letting the surge of nearly 20,000 additional troops proceed for a while.
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Top GOP lawmakers began staking out their new position last month.
“I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. “In other words,I think he himself has certainly indicated he’s not happy with where we are, and I think we are looking for a new direction in the fall.”
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a Senate Armed Services Committee member, told CBS, “By September, when General Petraeus is to make a report, I think most of the people in Congress believe, unless something extraordinary occurs, that we should be on a move to draw that surge number down.”
But commanders are sending different signals.
“The command sees this military operation continuing into 2008 for sure,” retired Army Gen. John Keane, a close adviser to Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, told The Examiner recently.
Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, warned last week that September might be too soon to judge the surge, much less a troop withdrawal.
“Right now if you asked me, I would tell you I’d probably need a little bit more time to do a true assessment,” he said.
Republicans know that 2008 election prospects will grow even dimmer if U.S. troops continue to die in Iraq.
“I think it’s a statement of the obvious that the Iraq War is not popular, and it’s a statement of the obvious that that’s the reason you’re looking at the Republican leader and not the majority leader,” said McConnell, who faces reelection next year.
