Bush?s plan for more troops faces uphill battle

Bush, who met on Saturday with his national security team, has tapped new military commanders to lead the war effort and will disclose a new war strategy as early as Wednesday that is expected to include political, military and economic components.

The military solution, which has attracted the most attention and skepticism from Congress, probably will call for an increase in U.S. troops, possibly 9,000 additional troops deployed to Baghdad alone.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shot down the suggestion of more troops within a day of gaining control of Congress.

“Based on the advice of current and former military leaders, we believe this tactic would be a serious mistake,” Reid said in the Democratic radio address Saturday. Instead, Reid and Pelosi want Bush to begin pulling troops out in four to six months.

“Our troops and their families have already sacrificed a great deal for Iraq,” Reid said. “They have done their part. It’s time for the Iraqis to do their part.”

Bush told more than a dozen senators Friday that he would settle on the option only if the Iraqi government offered certain guarantees, according to senators who attended the meeting.

While lawmakers said they were willing to wait and see the entirety of Bush’s plan before dismissing it entirely, members ? including some Republicans ? said they remained deeply skeptical about sending more troops.

“My conclusion was that it would be a mistake to send more troops to Baghdad. I think the sectarian violence there requires a political, not a military, solution,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., who had not had a chance yet to meet with the president.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., an Air Force veteran and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she would not support increasing troop levels “to do for the Iraqis what the Iraqis will not do for themselves.”

“I also have not seen a clarity of mission, and I think that’s the greatest weakness that we have right now,” Wilson said. “We’re talking about goals in lofty terms that are not vital American national interests. American troops should only go in harm’s way to protect America’s vital interests.”

Even Sen. John McCain, a Republican who advocates sending more troops in Iraq, said he wouldn’t support sending in the additional forces unless the number was adequate enough to finally tamp down the violence.

“I need to know if it’s enough or not,” McCain said.