WaPo :
A day after Democrats took control of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today urged President Bush not to prolong the 46-month-old Iraq war by increasing the number of U.S. troops in the country.
"Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain," the top two Democrats wrote in a letter to Bush . "Rather than deploy additional forces to Iraq, we believe the way forward is to begin the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four to six months, while shifting the principal mission of our forces there from combat to training, logistics, force protection and counter-terror."
[..]"Our troops and the American people have already sacrificed a great deal for the future of Iraq," the letter from Reid and Pelosi said. "After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and over $300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close."
Reid and Pelosi were among 12 Democratic lawmakers who called on Bush last summer to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year and to "transition to a more limited mission" in the country. Reid later told a TV interviewer that if U.S. military commanders support a buildup, "just for a short period of time, we'll go along with that."
Today's letter to Bush rejected sending any additional troops to Iraq. "We are well past the point of more troops for Iraq," the letter said. Read on...
Republicans are getting swept up in the tide against escalation First, Oliver North cautioned against it and now, Republican Congressperson Heather Wilson of New Mexico has also joined the chorus. George, dude, when OLIVER NORTH thinks that this is a bad idea, you really are losing your base.
