-Caveat Lector-
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: January 14, 2007 11:13:06 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: "Mutiny" in GOP
Bush faces mutiny over extra troops for Iraq
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The Independent (UK), 14 January 2007 23:06
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2154792.ece
As George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney inveighed against
their Democratic critics, the White House tried to prevent a
Republican mutiny on Capitol Hill from engulfing the President's
bitterly contested decision to send more than 20,000 extra US
troops to Iraq.
The moves came as public opposition to Mr Bush's new policy seemed,
if anything, to harden, while Congress geared up for what is
shaping up as the fiercest constitutional battle over the war-
waging powers of a President since the Vietnam war.
Mr Bush and Mr Cheney challenged Democrats to come up with a better
way: "To oppose everything while proposing nothing is
irresponsible," Mr Bush said, while his Vice-President,
predictably, was more trenchant. "They have absolutely nothing to
offer in its place," Mr Cheney told the conservative Fox News. "I
have yet to hear a coherent policy from the Democratic side." And,
he added: "If the United States doesn't have the stomach to finish
the task in Iraq, we put at risk what we've done" - confirming the
belief of al-Qa'ida that the US could be driven from the Middle East.
The most important arm-twisting, however, this weekend was not on
television but at Camp David. Mr Bush invited Republican
congressional leaders to the presidential retreat in a bid to rally
support, and dissuade members of his own party from breaking ranks
with a "lame duck" leader, whose approval ratings are at 35 per
cent or less.
Though the White House insists that it alone charts the conduct of
the war, the administration is deeply worried how non-binding
resolutions opposing the troop build-up, likely to be voted upon in
both Senate and House of Representatives in the next few weeks,
could erode its authority and credibility.
Majority Democrats are already working on texts designed to attract
maximum Republican support. The Senate vote will be especially
telling, since Democrats need to find 10 votes among their
opponents to gather the 60 needed to defeat the filibuster promised
by the minority leader Mitch McConnell, a loyal backer of the
President. If they succeed, it will be seen as further proof that
Mr Bush has lost control of the Capitol Hill wing of his party, as
Republican congressmen and senators facing re-election in 2008 run
for cover from a war that sent the party to defeat in November's
mid-term vote. "Everybody is scared spitless," John Thune, the
South Dakota Republican, told The New York Times.
In an interview with the CBS programme 60 Minutes last night, Mr
Bush again admitted a measure of responsibility for the shambles in
Iraq, saying that "no question, [my] decisions have made things
unstable in Iraq." And, he added, "history ... is going to see a
lot of ways in which we could have done things better - no question
about it."
Nonetheless, the President stuck to his guns about the decision to
invade in 2003, and once more said violence in Iraq had to be
brought under control - "or it could lead to attacks here in
America." The build-up could start as early as this week,
presenting Congress with a fait accompli, and daring Democrats to
use the "Armageddon" option of a vote to end war funding. Though a
total cut-off seems out of the question, Senator Edward Kennedy
says he will seek a ban on funding for the extra troops.
"Even 50,000 troops wouldn't turn it around," Chuck Hagel, the
Nebraska senator and leading Republican dissent in Congress, said
yesterday, urging the White House to "get out of the bog of
tactical thinking". To send more troops "into that grinder - a
tribal, sectarian civil war - is not going to fix the problem".
The row is having an impact on the 2008 election. John McCain, the
Republican front-runner and supporter of the "surge", said the war
could wreck his ambitions. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton
has to back away from her 2002 vote for war without opening herself
to the accusations of "flip-flopping".
* The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, arrived in London
yesterday for talks about future policy in Afghanistan and Iraq on
his first visit to Britain since taking office last month. Mr Gates
will hold talks with Tony Blair before dining with the Defence
Secretary, Des Browne.
www.ctrl.org
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