Democrats' new Iraq effort gains ground

Attempts in Congress to shift U.S. policy without setting a troop pullout deadline win more GOP support, apply pressure to Bush.
By Noam N. Levey and Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times

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.

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