House plunges into debate on Iraq war

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House plunges into debate on Iraq war 
GOP uses pleas from former POWs to counter Dem resolution

House Republicans are pulling out all the stops to win over GOP colleagues who may be wavering on whether to publicly rebuke President Bush's decision to send more troops into Iraq.

In daylong debate Tuesday, Republicans used emotional pleas from former prisoners of war, political talking points on religious extremism and even Arab ambassadors to rail against a Democratic attempt to put Congress on record against the troop buildup.

"If we let Democrats force us into a debate on the surge or the current situation in Iraq, we lose," Reps. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and John Shadegg, R-Ariz., said in a letter to their GOP colleagues.

"Rather, the debate must be about the global threat of the radical Islamist movement," they wrote.

The long-awaited floor debate on Iraq is the first since Democrats took control of Congress in the November midterm elections. It also comes as the war approaches the four-year mark with more than 3,100 U.S. troops dead.

Democrats made clear the nonbinding resolution was the beginning of a longer campaign to bring the Iraq war to an end.

"A vote of disapproval will set the stage for additional Iraq legislation, which will be coming to the House floor," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.

Several Republicans concerned or opposed to the troop buildup, including Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, were expected to speak on the issue during continuing floor debate Wednesday.

Jones is the lone Republican co-sponsoring the Democratic resolution, which expresses support for U.S. troops in Iraq and opposition to sending in another 20,000-plus.

Several Republicans were expected to jump ship and support the resolution, and Republican leaders acknowledged they were likely to lose the vote, which is expected Friday.

Minority Leader John Boehner said Republicans were determined not to lose the broader debate on the war.

"Because they cannot defeat Americans on the battlefield, al-Qaida and terrorist sympathizers around the world are trying to divide us here at home," said Boehner, R-Ohio. "Over the next few days, we have an opportunity to show our enemies that we will not take the bait."

At a news conference, Boehner began tearing up as he listened to Rep. Sam Johnson describe his experience as a prisoner of war for seven years in Vietnam.

"Words can't fully describe the unspeakable damage of the anti-American efforts against the war back home to the guys on the ground" in Vietnam, said Johnson, R-Texas, who was released 34 years ago on Tuesday.

Democrats had their own heavyweights when playing the military card, including Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired three-star Navy admiral. Sestak, who won his seat in November by campaigning against the war, said it would be unpatriotic to remain silent on the issue.

"If my 31 years in the military taught me anything, it was that we serve in this all-volunteer military to defend Americans' freedom to think as they please and to say what they think, even if they disagree with their leaders," Sestak said.

Republicans also offered members a chance to hear from the ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. Nearly three dozen GOP members attended a Jan. 30 off-the-record briefing, hosted by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., with the ambassadors. On Tuesday, an estimated 50 Republicans attended another briefing, hosted by Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J.

According to lawmakers and aides, the ambassadors told members a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would be disastrous.

The effort came as several GOP members strayed from the party line.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who previously has supported Bush on the war, said he is concerned the president's plan won't work. But, he added, he is also concerned the resolution will be interpreted as a statement that Iraq is a lost cause.

"This vote may be very much like asking a husband when he stopped beating his wife," he said. The issue of the war is "really much more complex."

Across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would attempt to pass an identical measure later this month. Republicans blocked debate on a different proposal critical of the troop increase earlier this winter, after Democrats refused to give equal treatment to a GOP-backed alternative.

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Bush warns of 'disastrous consequences' in Iraq 
At news conference, president also faces questions on N. Korea, Russia

Pressing his case for a massive infusion of American troops in Iraq, President Bush in his first news conference of the year Wednesday warned of “disastrous consequences” that would follow in the event of a U.S. military withdrawal.

“We weighed every option,” Bush told reporters. “I concluded that to step back from Baghdad would have disastrous consequences in America. And the reason why I say ‘disastrous consequences’ is, the Iraqi government could collapse and chaos could spread.”

Ahead of questions from reporters, Bush said in an opening statement that he had received his first briefing from Gen. David Petraeus, the new top U.S. commander in Iraq.

“We talked about the coordination between Iraqi and coalition forces,” Bush said. For now, he said, that coordination appeared to be good, although Bush said much work still needed to be done.

Noting discussions he has had with lawmakers, Bush said: “They have told me that they are dissatisfied with the situation in Iraq. I have told them that I was dissatisfied with the situation in Iraq.”

Bush also said that the Iraqi government “is following up on its commitment” to crack down on insurgents.

Preventing collapse and chaos
Bush shrugged off congressional debate on a resolution opposing his Iraq policy, noting that the measure was nonbinding and mostly symbolic. But he said U.S. troops are counting on lawmakers to provide them the funds they need to win.

Bush spoke as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives debated the resolution opposing his decision to send some 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

“They have every right to express their opposition and it is a nonbinding resolution,” he said of the House members, who were continuing a marathon Iraq policy debate on Capitol Hill even as he spoke.

Democrats have assailed Bush’s policy in Iraq as a catastrophic failure that has cost more than 3,100 U.S. troops their lives. “No more blank checks,” declared Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But Republican allies of the president are battling against a nonbinding resolution sponsored by Democrats against the war.

“This battle is the most visible part of a global war” against terrorists, countered the House Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner. “If we leave, they will follow us home. It’s that simple.”

‘Going to do something’ about Iran
Bush added that he’s convinced the Iranian government is supplying deadly weapons to fighters in Iraq, even if he can’t prove the orders came from the highest levels in Tehran.

More important, Bush said, is protecting U.S. troops against the lethal new threat. “I’m going to do something about it,” Bush said.

U.S. officials have said that Iran helped on attacks on troops in Iraq, an assertion denied by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

U.S. military officials, at a weekend briefing in Baghdad, said that the “highest levels” of the Iranian government had ordered the smuggling into Iraq of high-tech roadside bombs that have been killing American soldiers.

But Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared to question the assertions later. “That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this,” Pace said.

Bush also faced questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks Saturday that the United States “has overstepped its national borders in every way” and is fostering a new global arms race.

Putin told a conference in Germany of the world’s top security officials that his reason for his warning about the United States was its increased use of military force. Nations “are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations,” the Russian leader said.

“This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons,” he said.

His remarks were challenged by the White House. “His accusations are wrong,” said Gordon Johndroe, Bush’s national security spokesman.