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White House hints at change of course in Iraq

Ed Pilkington

Democrats step up call for phased withdrawal of troops

New York: Democrats, emboldened by the election victory, on Sunday stepped up pressure on the Bush administration for a change of course in Iraq, with two leading members of the party calling for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops to begin in four to six months.

With the Democrats set to take control of both Houses of Congress in January following Tuesday's midterm rout of the Republicans, the search for a fresh approach to the Iraq war is rapidly gathering pace. The idea for a timetable for withdrawal was floated by leading Democrats likely to head two of the most powerful Senate committees, the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees.

Carl Levin, the putative chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the Iraqi people could not be saved from themselves. President George Bush ``will change course if we can put some bipartisan pressure on him''.

The U.S. presence in Iraq was not open-ended, he said. Mr Levin proposed a timetable for withdrawal coupled with an international conference on the future of the country.

``We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months.''

Joseph Biden, a likely presidential candidate in 2008, who is expected to chair the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said he backed the idea.

Though Mr Bush retains control of policy over Iraq and could theoretically ignore them, he has stressed his willingness to listen to the Democrats and has spent the past five days emphasising his intention of forging a climate of bipartisanship. He has also signalled his clear intention of rethinking Iraq by replacing Donald Rumsfeld with the less hawkish Robert Gates as Defence Secretary.

The White House Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolten, said the President was prepared to make ``course adjustments'' and admitted that the current strategy was not working.

He said, ``Nobody can be happy with the situation in Iraq right now ...

"It's clearly time to put fresh eyes on the problem.'' The U.S. military is also engaged in its own review of strategy led by General Peter Pace. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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