WASHINGTON — After two days of testimony before Congress, the Bush administration's top diplomat and military commander in Iraq made few inroads in their effort to convince skeptical lawmakers that the White House war strategy was working.
In appearances before two Senate committees Tuesday, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker faced much harsher and pointed questioning than they did a day earlier in a visit to the House, where lawmakers focused on plans for winding down the U.S. troop buildup.
By Tuesday, it was clear that although such a drawdown would remove the nearly 30,000 reinforcements by next summer, it would leave 130,000 troops in Iraq, a force size that troubled both Republicans and Democrats.
Especially concerned were GOP senators who face reelection next year. They seemed worried by the increasing likelihood that there would be little political progress in Iraq and high levels of U.S. troops there come election day 2008.
President Bush plans an address to the nation Thursday evening, in which he is expected to embrace Petraeus' recommendations.
At a White House meeting Tuesday with Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, congressional leaders criticized the administration plan.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said she told Bush that Petraeus' presentation sounded like "a plan for at least a 10-year, high-level U.S. presence in Iraq."
She said the president must explain "why our country should have to continue to make that commitment."
A critical question for congressional Democrats seeking to force earlier and more drastic troop withdrawals is how many Republicans will keep backing the current White House strategy.
Among the potentially vulnerable Republicans, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who is up for reelection next year, emphatically asked Tuesday for objective measures of progress.
"Americans want to see light at the end of tunnel," Coleman told Petraeus and Crocker.
"We need to see some plan out there," he said.
Coleman has opposed Democratic withdrawal proposals all year, but he was an early critic of the "surge" in the number of forces and was one of seven Republicans who voted for a measure in July to mandate more downtime for troops.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), who has not supported any of the Democratic measures opposing the increase in troops, strongly criticized the Iraqi government and said she would support what she called "action-forcing measures."
