The troop cap thing. This should be fun to follow since the Dems will dance all over the board on the war issue before the election. And, I predict, it'll kill them.
It looks like the "troop cap" is what the current Party plan is going to be while they backpedal from the universally mocked Vietnamization plan.
Clinton asks limit on troops in Iraq
By JERRY ZREMSKI
News Washington Bureau Chief
1/18/2007
WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Wednesday that Congress set a limit on the number of troops in Iraq, along with guidelines that the Iraqi government and the Bush administration must meet for continued military support for that war-torn nation.
Under her bill, President Bush would not be able to boost the overall level of troops in Iraq beyond the level that they were at last week, when he announced plans to add 21,500 troops to the current U.S. fighting force in Iraq, which totaled more than 130,000 at the time.
Noting that more troops already are being moved toward Iraq, Clinton, D-N.Y., acknowledged that her legislation probably would not pass in time to stop a troop buildup.
"But this does lay down some markers about what we expect," she said. Clinton made her comments a day after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan and a day after Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., leapt into a presidential race Clinton is expected to join soon.
In proposing legislation that in some ways would take over management of the war from the Bush administration, she took her strongest stand yet against the administration's handling of a war that she endorsed in a Senate vote in 2002 and that has angered anti-war Democrats ever since.
Accusing the Bush administration of "pursuing a failed strategy in Iraq as it edges toward collapse," Clinton instead suggested ratcheting up the pressure on Iraqi leaders to settle their differences.
Under the legislation she is proposing, U.S. funding for Iraqi military operations would be cut off in six months unless Iraqi political leaders meet a series of benchmarks to bring peace among the nation's warring factions.
"I do not support cutting funding for American troops, but I do support cutting funding for Iraqi forces if the Iraqi government does not meet set conditions," Clinton said.
She accused the Bush administration of not putting enough pressure on Iraqi leaders to resolve their differences and control increasing sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
"I think we will eventually have to move to tougher requirements on the administration to get their attention," Clinton said, adding that she wanted "a change of course, not adding more troops and pursuing a strategy that under present circumstances cannot be successful."
Clinton unveiled her Iraq plan in television appearances Wednesday morning, prompting White House press secretary Tony Snow to respond at his midday briefing. He countered Clinton's claim that Bush isn't doing enough to pressure the Iraqi government.
"The president made it very clear that the American public has limited patience when it comes to Iraq," Snow said. "And we do expect to see things happening."
A bipartisan group of senators, meanwhile, unveiled a formal nonbinding resolution opposing Bush's buildup of troops in Iraq.
Clinton said she intends to support the resolution, drafted by Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee; and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. But, she added, "We will eventually have to move to tougher requirements on the administration to get their attention."
