Demos toil to halt 'reckless escalation'

WASHINGTON — In an intensifying debate on the war in Iraq, Democratic senators began probing Tuesday how Congress could halt President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq or even use its powers to halt the war altogether.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., introduced legislation that would immediately place a cap on the number of troops in Iraq — now at about 132,000 — and remove all combat brigades in the war zone by March 31, 2008. Perhaps the boldest — and most quixotic — challenge to the president's authority came from Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who said he would introduce legislation Wednesday that would end all funding for the deployment of troops within six months after it is implemented, forcing an end to the war.

Even a leading Republican senator expressed doubts about Bush moving forward on Iraq without sharing decisionmaking with Congress.

Obama, who first voiced support for a phased withdrawal in a speech before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November, said he felt compelled to try to halt Bush's "reckless escalation" plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq.

"But no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war, nor settle the grievances in the hearts of the combatants," Obama said. "The time for waiting in Iraq is over. The days of our open-ended commitment must come to a close. And the need to bring this war to an end is here."

He said he adopted the March 31, 2008, end date from recommendations made last year by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Troop levels would be capped at the military's strength on Jan. 10, the day Bush announced he would send more troops to Iraq, and the phased withdrawal would begin as early as May 1, according to Obama's proposal.

The proposal would allow for the U.S. troop redeployment to pause, with congressional approval, if the Iraqis meet political and security benchmarks laid out by the Bush administration in its plan for a surge of troops. Obama and others argue that American forces can be of little help now because the Iraqi government is unwilling to make the difficult decisions that would make the most of the U.S. presence. The growing complaints about the war crossed party lines as the Senate neared debate on two non-binding resolutions disapproving of Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales asking for the administration's views on Congress' war powers.