Domenici Breaks with Bush War Policy

By Paul Kane
Washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, July 5, 2007; 3:23 PM

Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), a 36-year Republican veteran of the Senate, abandoned President Bush's Iraq war policy today by publicly endorsing legislation designed to withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from Iraq by March 2008.

Domenici, a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, is the fourth senior Senate Republican to sharply criticize Bush's war strategy in the past two weeks. He announced during a press conference in Albuquerque that he was co-sponsoring legislation that would embrace the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which called for a major redeployment that would leave only a limited number of troops in Iraq to focus on counter-terror operations and securing the border.

"I have carefully studied the Iraq situation, and believe we cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its country forward," Domenici said. "I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops. But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home."

Domenici's defection is the latest from a growing number of senior Senate Republicans who have decided to oppose the White House's preferred plan of waiting for a mid-September progress report on the effectiveness of Bush's "surge" plan of boosting the U.S. deployment in Iraq this year by tens of thousands of troops.

Rather than wait for that report, to be drafted by the administration, Domenici and other senior Republicans have called for a change in course this summer in advance of the coming legislative fight this month in the Senate on the authorization bill for the Pentagon.

"I am unwilling to continue our current strategy," Domenici said flatly, blaming the Iraqi government for its inability to get its internal administration in order.

Early last week Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the leading Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a rebuke to the White House with a more than 5,000-word address on the Senate floor declaring that the surge was not working and that the "current path" on Iraq was not acceptable. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, applauded Lugar's speech and said he would offer his own amendments calling for a change in policy during the defense authorization debate next week.

And Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) also endorsed a call for withdrawing troops, sending a letter to Bush personally making that request.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to force Republicans into abandoning Bush on a series of votes on Iraq. As of now, he appears to be short of the two-thirds votes needed to over-ride a presidential veto of legislation setting a withdrawal date, but the statements from Domenici and the other senators give momentum to Democrats upon which they hope to build.

Specifically, Domenici endorsed a bill written by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) that adopts the 79 recommendations from the Iraq Study Group, chaired by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), as the policy of the United States.