Bush under pressure

WASHINGTON – US President George W Bush faces mounting pressure from lawmakers to shift course on the Iraq war, but the White House insists the rising political heat will not force a quick about-face on troop withdrawals.

Increasing Republican anxiety over Bush’s strategy and a new Democratic assault has set the stage for the next two weeks in Congress in what could prove the most crucial showdown yet on ending the war. Republicans have so far fended off attempts to handcuff Bush’s war powers by Democratic leaders, who have demanded most combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by April 1, 2008.The new intensity to the Iraq debate came as the administration prepared to unveil an interim report on the progress of Bush’s strategy to deploy nearly 30 000 extra soldiers into the war-torn nation.US officials said the progress report to Congress, due out later this week, would give mixed reviews to the strategy and to efforts by leaders in Baghdad to take steps to quell violence.”I’m not sure everybody is going to get an ‘A’ on the first report,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said wryly to reporters when asked about Iraq’s government and its failures thus far to meet US goals for reconciliation.”The report to be issued by Sunday will present a picture of satisfactory progress on some benchmarks and not on others,” a senior US official said hours after the briefing.”This is to be expected given the report is a preliminary snapshot of what are the early stages of the full surge,” the official said.The Senate and House of Representatives are meanwhile taking a new look at Iraq policy, hoping to squeeze Republicans between their support for the war and public opinion, which has turned against it.Nampa-AFPRepublicans have so far fended off attempts to handcuff Bush’s war powers by Democratic leaders, who have demanded most combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by April 1, 2008.The new intensity to the Iraq debate came as the administration prepared to unveil an interim report on the progress of Bush’s strategy to deploy nearly 30 000 extra soldiers into the war-torn nation.US officials said the progress report to Congress, due out later this week, would give mixed reviews to the strategy and to efforts by leaders in Baghdad to take steps to quell violence.”I’m not sure everybody is going to get an ‘A’ on the first report,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said wryly to reporters when asked about Iraq’s government and its failures thus far to meet US goals for reconciliation.”The report to be issued by Sunday will present a picture of satisfactory progress on some benchmarks and not on others,” a senior US official said hours after the briefing.”This is to be expected given the report is a preliminary snapshot of what are the early stages of the full surge,” the official said.The Senate and House of Representatives are meanwhile taking a new look at Iraq policy, hoping to squeeze Republicans between their support for the war and public opinion, which has turned against it.Nampa-AFP