WASHINGTON — For the first time, congressional Democrats are moving close to winning significant Republican support for legislation to challenge the way President Bush is managing the war in Iraq.
But even if these bipartisan compromises were to become law, they are unlikely to force the president to pull out troops for at least the next year, no faster than he appears to want.
In the Senate, which will be the center of the war debate next week, a proposal to require more rest between deployments for troops fighting in Iraq appears almost certain to have won enough GOP support to overcome procedural hurdles that have blocked most Democratic initiatives to limit the war.
Army officials, however, said the measure's requirement that soldiers and Marines spend as much time at home as in the field would have little impact on troop levels in Iraq until late 2008. It would do nothing to speed the withdrawal of the 30,000 troops Army Gen. David H. Petraeus plans to bring home by July. Democrats have criticized the plan as too slow.
Another proposal to scale back what troops can do in Iraq appears to be gaining more Republican support as well.
The measure, which is being developed by senior Senate Democrats, would define limited missions, such as training Iraqi forces, guarding Iraq's bor- ders and targeting Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Iraq.
But that measure would not set limits on how many troops the military could deploy for those narrower missions, potentially allowing the White House to keep a large force in Iraq well into next year or beyond.
Meanwhile in the House, a measure being pushed by a large bipartisan group of lawmakers would only require the president to develop a plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq but not require the White House to implement it.
Senior Democrats, as well as some Republicans, emphasize that they hope strong GOP support for these initiatives will exert pressure on Bush to speed the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Until now, Bush has been largely protected by Republican allies on Capitol Hill.
But even many proponents of ending U.S. military involvement in Iraq acknowledge that congressional Democrats have limited power to force Bush to do anything.
"We recognize that the president is the commander in chief, and he has ignored a lot of things in the past," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has until recently been uncompromising in his push for a withdrawal. "With all legislation, we have to see first of all if we can get it passed."
