WASHINGTON — Not a single American soldier will do anything differently this week if the Senate approves a resolution criticizing President Bush's plans to increase troop levels in Iraq.
The nonbinding resolution would have no more force of law than the one approved Thursday commending the Miss America Organization for its commitment to "the character of women in the United States."
Yet the immense symbolism of what may be the first formal rebuke of Bush's war strategy has produced the most passionate war debate on Capitol Hill since the invasion of Iraq nearly four years ago.
At its core is a furious argument over what the challenge really means -- not just to the president, but to the military, to the Iraqi government and to America's enemies and allies in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Several of the resolution's sponsors bill the eight-page document as little more than a polite suggestion to the country's chief executive, offering alternatives to Bush's plan to deploy an additional 21,500 troops, mainly in Baghdad, to contain sectarian violence.
Other advocates, including Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, cast it as a first step in an escalating congressional campaign to end the war.
Some of the war's most passionate opponents, complaining about the resolution's nonbinding nature, dismiss it as a meaningless exercise.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration and its supporters in Congress warn of a dangerous message that approval of the resolution would send to U.S. troops and to Middle Eastern countries.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is leading the push for an alternative resolution expressing congressional support for the mission. Bush has said repeatedly that he will ignore any resolution challenging his plan.
The debate over the message is hardly unprecedented; Congress similarly wrestled with how to express itself when President Clinton was contemplating military involvement in the Balkans in the mid-1990s.
And when the House ultimately passed a nonbinding resolution expressing "serious concerns and opposition" to the commitment of troops to enforce the Bosnian peace treaty, lawmakers were careful to declare their confidence that U.S. troops "will perform their responsibilities with professional excellence."
In the current debate, senators critical of the White House's Iraq policy also have assiduously insisted that they do not intend to undermine U.S. forces.
