FT. IRWIN, CALIF. — Denouncing Democrats from coast to coast for trying to limit his freedom of action in Iraq, President Bush is betting -- as he often has -- that when it comes to national security, confrontation works better than conciliation.
"A strategy that encourages this enemy to wait us out is dangerous," Bush told troops Wednesday at this Army training post in the Mojave Desert, his latest salvo at the congressional effort to force a military withdrawal from Iraq.
He added, "It's dangerous for our troops, it's dangerous for our country's security, and it's not going to become the law."
In Washington, Republicans and Democrats expect that the president will win this battle in the short run; that after weeks or months of debate, Congress will eventually provide billions of dollars for the war in Iraq with only mild conditions attached.
"Ultimately, politically, we have to give him [the] money," Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, predicted in an interview on NBC this week.
But Bush and his opponents in Congress appear to be working on different calendars.
The president is striving to buy a few more months of time for his new military strategy -- the "surge" of additional troops into Baghdad's neighborhoods -- to show that progress can be made in stabilizing Iraq.
"The Washington clock is moving more rapidly than the Baghdad clock," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, said in an interview on PBS' "NewsHour" Wednesday. "So we're obviously trying to speed up the Baghdad clock a bit ... and perhaps put a little more time on the Washington clock."
But Democrats say that even if Bush wins the legislative battle in the short run, they think they have the winning political strategy in the long run, given that growing majorities of the public and in Congress favor setting a target date for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
"This is a moving picture, not a still frame, and with every day the situation fails to improve in Iraq, the support for withdrawal is stronger," said a Democratic Senate aide who asked not to be identified by name because his comments were not authorized by party leaders.
Recent polls found public support for setting a withdrawal date near the 60% mark, an increase over the findings in earlier surveys.
