Republican opposition to 'surge' grows
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Ignoring President George Bush's State of the Union plea to give his new Iraq policy time to work, senior Democratic and Republican senators pressed ahead with a resolution flatly opposing his plan to send more than 20,000 extra troops to Baghdad, and setting up a clash between Congress and the executive branch.
The resolution non-binding but of great symbolic importance was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday by 12 votes to nine, before going to the full Senate next week. Senator Chuck Hagel, the sole Republican to join 11 Democrats in support of the measure, said: "We better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder."
The panel's chairman, Senator Joseph Biden, said the legislation was " not an attempt to embarrass the President" but an attempt to save him from making a "significant mistake".
Near-unanimous Democratic rejection of the troop "surge" is taken for granted at the White House. Everything now hinges on whether the resolution will attract substantial Republican support as well thus making it impossible for Bush aides to accuse their opponents of playing partisan politics. It already has the sponsorship of two Republican senators, while at least six others have come out in public opposition to Mr Bush.
In the most impassioned part of an otherwise low-key address on Tuesday, Mr Bush painted an apocalyptic picture of what might happen if US troops pulled out.
Whatever individual senators and representatives had voted in the crucial 2002 vote authorising the war, the President told his largely sceptical audience: "You did not vote for failure." If US support were removed, the Baghdad government "would be overrun by extremists on all sides".
Polls immediately afterwards suggested that more than three-quarters of listeners liked what they heard a contrast with Mr Bush's abysmal approval ratings of 30 per cent or less.
* John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, said he would not join his party's crowded field for 2008.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments