Bush's dangerous blunder

Washington: Furious senators slammed President George W. Bush's new plan for Iraq yesterday, with Republican Senator Chuck Hagel branding it the most dangerous US foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam War.

"I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since Vietnam if it is carried out," Hagel said yesterday.

"I will resist it," Hagel said as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Democrat chairman of the committee, Senator Joseph Biden branded Bush's plan "a tragic mistake".

"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In a tense exchange, Biden pressed Rice to say whether she was confident that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki had the capability to provide enough Iraq troops to help in stabilising the country.

"I think he knows that his government is in a sense on borrowed time," she said.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in a speech earlier in the day declared: "In choosing to escalate the war, the president virtually stands alone."

Reid said he will schedule a vote on a nonbinding bill expressing disapproval of Bush's new policy, but the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, threatened to use procedural tactics to prevent a vote.

Bush's new strategy, announced Wednesday, increases US forces in Iraq by 21,500 and demands greater cooperation from the Iraqi government. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he could not say just how long the buildup would last.

"It's viewed as a temporary surge, but I think no one has a really clear idea of how long that might be," Gates told a White House briefing.

Criticism of Bush's policy not only came from Democrats, but also from Republicans as well.

Representative Ric Keller, a Republican and one of Bush's most ardent supporters, said yesterday he would have agreed three years ago with the president's call for more troops - but not now.

"At this late stage, interjecting more young American troops into the crossfire of an Iraqi civil war is simply not the right approach," Keller told the House of Representatives. "We are not going to solve an Iraqi political problem with an American military solution."

Rice acknowledged widespread concerns about the war that has gone on almost four years and cost more than 3,000 American lives.

"I want you to know that I understand and indeed feel the heartbreak that Americans feel at the continued sacrifice of American lives ... and for the concern of our men and women who are still in harm's way," she said.