Dems to Press Military on Leaving Iraq

WASHINGTON - Emboldened by election gains and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Democrats want to press a top Army general and other advisers to President Bush on beginning to pull troops out of Iraq.

Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and David Satterfield, the State Department's senior adviser on Iraq, were scheduled to testify before the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Wednesday, followed by CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Maples.

"I would hope and expect that we're going to be given some indication at that hearing that they see the need to change direction," said Sen. Carl Levin, who will take control of the Senate Armed Services Committee next year.

"My displeasure with the president, he doesn't understand the urgency of this," incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Washington Post. "It's all victory for him, but I don't know what that means anymore in Iraq. I do know what we are doing now doesn't work."

The hearings are the first since the Nov. 7 elections, when voters handed Democrats control of Congress in part because of their frustration over the lack of progress in Iraq. Just over a third of the public approves of President Bush's handling of the war, according to AP-Ipsos polling last month. About six in 10 think the U.S. military action in Iraq was a mistake.

The hearings also will be the first since Bush announced Nov. 8 that Rumsfeld would step down and Robert Gates, who led the CIA in the first Bush administration, would be nominated to replace him.

An AP-Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that people consider Iraq the top priority for Congress over the next two years. But a majority of people, 57 percent, say the Democrats in Congress have no plan for Iraq - highlighting the sense of frustration over the war that was started more than three-and-a-half years ago.

While Republicans will still control the committee gavels, Wednesday's hearings are likely to offer a first look into how Democrats will approach the issue of Iraq next year. They also may indicate whether some Republicans will break ranks with the president and support a timetable in Iraq, as many Democrats have predicted.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz. - two possible presidential candidates - are members of the Senate committee and will likely use the hearing as a forum to express their opinions on Iraq. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House panel, has begun his own presidential run.

Levin, D-Mich., this week said he spoke with a "key Republican" and several others who have expressed a willingness to change U.S. policy in Iraq. He declined to name them.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in October after returning from a trip to Iraq that he thought the war was "drifting sideways" and that the administration and Congress may need to rethink their options.

Warner, who opposes setting a date to begin pulling troops out of Iraq, said this week he won't initiate a major change in course right away. He said he wants first to see recommendations from a bipartisan panel led by Republican James Baker III and Democrat Lee Hamilton, as well as an internal assessment under way at the Pentagon.

Baker and Hamilton are expected to unveil their report after Thanksgiving, although it is unclear whether they will recommend how long U.S. troops should stay in Iraq.

"I think they'll probably be deferring a lot to commanders on the ground on how to do that," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Dodd, along with several other senators, spoke in recent days with members of Baker's group.

"I think they may talk about timeframes but leaving the details to the people on the ground who have to make those decisions," said Dodd, D-Conn.

Levin said he hoped Abizaid and other uniformed generals will be more willing to discuss drastic changes to Iraq policy, including a drawdown of U.S. troops, now that the elections are over.