WASHINGTON — As the Senate began a new debate Monday on the war in Iraq, the White House brushed off calls from a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers to change course in the conflict.
"The president wants to withdraw troops based on the facts on the ground, not on the matter of politics," White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters. Later, he added: "There is no intensifying discussion about reducing troops."
Snow also tried to minimize the differences between President Bush and his GOP critics on Capitol Hill by explaining that the president also wanted to bring home the troops.
In the last two weeks, several senior Senate Republicans -- including a few loyal supporters of Bush's war strategy -- have publicly declared the troop increase a failure and urged him to begin planning a withdrawal.
The GOP defections have increased pressure on the White House, just as the Bush administration is completing a report on the situation in Iraq that it must send lawmakers before Monday. Snow indicated the report would acknowledge that the Iraqis had not met all the goals identified by Congress this spring.
The defections have further emboldened Senate Democrats trying to force a troop withdrawal by spring. They plan a series of votes over the next two weeks to induce Republicans to join their campaign.
On Monday, the Senate began considering the first such proposal -- an amendment to the $649-billion defense authorization bill, requiring the military to guarantee that troops returning from Iraq get adequate rest before redeployment.
"We are now in the fifth year of ground combat operations in Iraq," said Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), a Vietnam War veteran and former Navy secretary, who is sponsoring the measure.
He said: "This deck of cards is crashing down, and it's landing heavily on the heads of the soldiers and the Marines who have been deployed again and again while the rest of the country sits back and debates Iraq as an intellectual or emotional exercise."
A similar gambit by House Democrats failed this year amid warnings from the administration and many GOP lawmakers that such requirements would constrain the military.
But as casualties mount and long deployments take a toll on communities nationwide, Democrats hope to attract more Republican support.
Democratic leaders are planning other amendments to enact withdrawal timelines much like those that proved so contentious last spring when a war-funding bill was debated.
