Two Republican senators break with Bush on Iraq and call for troop withdrawal plan
WASHINGTON — In a sign that Republican congressional support for the White House's Iraq strategy is starting to wane, two senators who have stood with President Bush are calling on him to plan for a U.S. troop withdrawal.
Ohio Sen. George V. Voinovich sent a letter to the president Tuesday stressing the need for a "comprehensive plan for our country's gradual military disengagement from Iraq."
And Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar -- the former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee whose views on international affairs are widely respected -- went to the floor of the Senate on Monday night and urged Bush "to downsize the U.S. military's role in Iraq."
"Our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond," Lugar said in an anguished address, expressing deep reservations about the president's policy as well as disappointment with the highly partisan debate in Washington over the war.
"The prospects that the current surge strategy will succeed in the way originally envisioned by the president are very limited within the short period framed by our own domestic political debate," he said.
Voinovich, also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he now believed a nonmilitary strategy would do more to bring about stability in Iraq.
Neither senator indicated he would support Democratic legislation to force the president to withdraw most U.S. combat forces.
White House spokesman Tony Snow played down Lugar's comments Tuesday, saying: "He's somebody who has had reservations."
But the newly voiced views of the two Midwestern GOP senators may portend more trouble for the Bush administration's efforts to keep Republicans on Capitol Hill united behind the current war strategy through the summer.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), a former Armed Services chairman who has been a critical voice in the war debate, told reporters Tuesday that he expected more GOP lawmakers to follow Lugar and Voinovich in coming weeks.
Even as administration officials plead for patience, public disaffection with the war continues to grow.
A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that nearly two in five Americans now favor withdrawing U.S. troops.
Despite the troop buildup, insurgent violence remains high in Iraq. The Pentagon reported that May was the third deadliest month for U.S. troops since the invasion in 2003.
