Ensign stands by Bush on troop ‘surge’ in Iraq

WASHINGTON — Although Republican support has eroded for the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq, Nevada Sen. John Ensign says he plans to stick with President Bush’s strategy for now.

Ensign said Wednesday that he continues to oppose setting timetables for U.S. troop withdrawals and won’t reconsider his position at least until September. That’s when Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is scheduled to report to Congress on military and political progress in the nation.

Elsewhere in the Senate, a half dozen Republicans in the past several weeks have declared it is time to reconsider the strategy that has sent 28,500 additional troops to Iraq, building the U.S. presence there to 160,000 soldiers.

Democrats led by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada are pushing amendments this week hoping to convert growing Republican frustration into votes to remove the troops from Iraq or make changes in their mission.

Ensign said he plans to vote against all changes.

“We said we would give General Petraeus until September. We ought to at least give him a chance,” Ensign said. “We have only had the whole contingent of the surge there for a couple of weeks.

“I am going to wait and see, which is what we should do,” he said. “Wait and see.”

The Pentagon announced June 15 that the buildup ordered by Bush in February had been completed, with a mission to pacify areas of Baghdad and western Iraq so that the Iraqi government could gain footing.

But critics, including those among Republicans, said the Iraqi government is incapable and the United States should cut its losses in the war, in which Americans are killed almost daily.

“There’s simply no evidence that the escalation is working,” Reid said in a speech Wednesday. “Conditions are deteriorating, and more lives are being lost every day.

“Waiting until September is not the answer,” Reid said. “Holding out blind hope — blind trust — that progress will appear out of thin air, that is not the answer.

“That’s like a quarterback throwing three interceptions in a row, one after another, and then insisting to his coach, ‘Trust me. Leave me in,’ but not changing his game plan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in the House have scheduled a vote for today on legislation calling for an end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq by next spring.

Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, both R-Nev., said they plan to vote against it. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is overseas and will miss the vote but said she supports the troop pullout.

“This is an easy vote,” she said in a telephone interview. “We cannot give the president a blank check. He has got to be held accountable for his policies. The surge is not a strategy; it is throwing more troops at a failed policy.”

Like Ensign, Heller said he believes Petraeus should be given until September.

“I am a little baffled why there is a quick vote,” he said. “My position on the Iraq war has not changed at this point. I am with the troops all the way.”

Heller has co-sponsored a bill that would harmonize U.S. strategy with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton.

Among its 79 recommendations, the panel advised giving the highest priority to training Iraqi military and police recruits, launching a new diplomatic offensive in the region and stressing economic and security benchmarks for the Iraqis that might make it possible for U.S. troops to pull back next spring.