Democrats refuse to give Bush ‘blank cheque’

Mark Simkin

In Washington, Democrats are warning President George Bush he’ll be under intense pressure to explain why he wants to send more troops to Iraq.

The President is widely expected to announce this week that he wants to send as many as 20,000 more soldiers to stabilise the capital Baghdad.

But the Democrats, who control Congress, say the President won’t have a blank cheque.

North America Correspondent Mark Simkin reports.

(Sound of protesters chanting)

MARK SIMKIN: A major American magazine calls Moqtada al-Sadr Iraq’s most dangerous man. He controls the Shi’ite militia, and nearly 2,000 of his supporters are marching through a slum on the outskirts of Baghdad.

(Sound of protesters chanting)

“No, no, no to America,” they chant.

(Sound of man speaking Arabic)

“The Americans arrested a number of our brothers from different parts of the area,” one man complains. “Does Islam and God accept this? Does the west accept this? Is this freedom?”

The protesters want the United States out of Iraq, but all the indications are that George W Bush is preparing to send more soldiers in. He’s finalising a new strategy, tentatively called a new way forward, and is expected to unveil it this week.

Reports suggest the President wants to send tens of thousands more combat troops, mainly to Baghdad. At the same time there’ll be a redoubling of the reconstruction effort, a jobs program that could cost up to $1-billion. Iraqis will apparently be employed to paint schools and clean streets.

But it’s the additional troops that are getting most of the attention. Even the plan’s backers acknowledge it’s both controversial and risky.

Lindsey Graham is a Republican Senator.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: We are not winning, and if you’re not winning you’re losing. And now’s the time to come up with a strategy to win. The reason President Bush is going to do this, is because he understands that we have to win in Iraq. We cannot let this country go into the abyss. Now is the last chance and the only chance we have left to get this right.

MARK SIMKIN: Over the weekend the White House revealed that two US generals who once expressed doubts about a troop increase are being replaced. The Commander of US forces in Iraq, George Casey, will become the army chief of staff, and the top US commander in the Middle East, John Abizaid, will retire.

Senator Lindsey Graham says the generals need to be held to account.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: The strategy they come up with for the last two years has not worked. Iraq is not more stable than it was when they took over two years ago. Sectarian violence in Baghdad has gotten worse. I’ve been there five times. The first time I went there we went rug shopping. The last time I went we were in a tank.

MARK SIMKIN: The Democrats now control both houses of congress, and they’re opposed to any troop increase.

The new speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is hinting that she could block funding for additional troops.

NANCY PELOSI: If the President chooses to escalate the war in his budget request, we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now. The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them.

But if the President wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it. And this is new for him, because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank cheque with no oversight, no standards, no conditions, and we’ve gone into this situation which is a war without end, which the American people have rejected.

MARK SIMKIN: The Democrats argue the extra troops will simply become targets for insurgents. Three more Americans died today. They were blown up by a car bomb, despite a security crackdown by the Iraqi army.