Senator urges Bush to explain war

By Jackie Frank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top Republican on the Senate
Armed Services Committee urged President George W. Bush on
Sunday to go before the American public to explain his plan for
the war in Iraq.

Virginia Sen. John Warner told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said
such a public address would be helpful to hold on to public
support during the next six months while Iraq sets up its own
government and gains the ability to maintain its security.

Bush, who has been out of public sight since he arrived on
November 22 at his Crawford, Texas ranch for a Thanksgiving
break, has been facing waning support for the war and the
lowest job approval ratings of his presidency.

“I think it would be to Bush’s advantage. It would bring
him closer to the people, dispel some of the concern that,
understandably, our people have about the loss of life and
limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public,”
Warner said.

“We have got to stay firm for the next six months. It is a
critical period … in this Iraqi situation, to restore full
sovereignty in that country. And that enables them to have
their own armed forces to maintain that sovereignty,” he said.

Bush is to speak on immigration in Arizona on Monday and
then will return to Washington on Tuesday and give a speech
about the war on terror at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis
on Wednesday.

Anti-war protesters, including Cindy Sheehan whose son died
in Iraq last year and who became an icon for the peace movement
after her 26-day vigil near Bush’s ranch in the summer,
gathered in the tiny central Texas town again, although in much
smaller numbers. They vowed to come to Crawford every time Bush
visits his ranch.

Warner was one of the authors of a Senate-passed resolution
that called for Iraqis to start taking the lead in their own
security next year to allow a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops.

CRITICAL SIX MONTHS

While the Senate rejected a Democrats’ demand that Bush
submit a plan and an estimated timetable to withdraw,
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware said on NBC it would be
“virtually impossible” to sustain 150,000 American troops in
Iraq for the next two years.

Although Biden said he did not believe the Iraq war was
lost, he added: “I think we have a six-month window here to get
it right. But I have to admit that I think the chances are not
a lot better than 50-50.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar,
said on “Fox News Sunday” that more pressure needs to be put on
the Iraqis to take responsibility for their security.

“But the fact is that we are going to try to train them to
perform, and the question is how well they do so, whether they
mop up on each other or whether they have a unified country,”
the Indiana Republican said.

Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said
the goal was to enable multinational forces to be drawn down to
under 100,000 by 2007.

“Basically, we want to create the right conditions in the
urban areas for the Iraqi security forces to assume the
responsibility of security in these cities and towns,” he said
on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

U.S. defense officials said last week that the Pentagon
plans to shrink the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, now at
155,000, to about 138,000 after the December 15 Iraqi elections
and is considering dropping the number to 100,000 next summer
if conditions allow. However, a variety of scenarios are being
reviewed, including no troop cuts, based on political and
security conditions in Iraq.

(Additional reporting Leslie Wroughton in Washington and
Patricia Wilson in Crawford, Texas)