WASHINGTON - Senior members of the US Congress urged President George W. Bush
on Sunday to revise the administration's Iraq policy, two weeks before the
midterm congressional elections that could bring a change of control over the
legislature.
While Democrats continued their calls for a new strategy in Iraq, some
Republican lawmakers joined their Democratic colleagues in calling the
administration for a change in its Iraq policy.
Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said there was a need for " radical change" in the Bush
administration's policy on Iraq.
"The truth of the matter is there's a need for radical change in policy," he
told the Fox News television.
Biden said there was a need for a political solution in Iraq and a bipartisan
solution in Washington. "Without those two things happening, there is no
possibility, in my view, we succeed in Iraq, " he said.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, the party's presidential candidate in 2004,
told ABC television's "This Week" that a political rather than military solution
was needed for Iraq. He also urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to give
the Iraqi army more authority to improve security. "It is their job, not the US
coalition forces' to subdue and get rid of these private militias," he said.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the United States was drafting a
timetable for the Iraqi government to address sectarian divisions and assume a
larger role in securing the country. The plan, which was to be presented to
al-Maliki before the end of the year, would not threaten Maliki with a
withdrawal of US troop, the Times said.
The plan would for the first time ask the Iraqi government to agree to a
schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a
broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks intended to
stabilize the country, the report said.
Republican Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
said he was encouraged by the reported plan but that the White House should act
quickly. "I don't believe that a shift in tactics ought to wait until after the
election (of November 7). There are too many casualties there," he told CNN's
"Late Edition" program.
"If we have a better course, we ought to adopt it sooner rather than later,"
he said.
The reported plan showed "the forward thinking" of the administration,
Republican Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
told "Fox News Sunday."