[NYTr] Dem Senator Challenges Bush's Claims about "Surge" Success

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Yahoo - Nov 18, 2007
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20071118/twl-democrats-iraq-38359fb.html


Casey Says Bush Wrong on War

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A Democratic senator on Saturday accused President Bush
and congressional Republicans of hindering his party's attempts to
chart a new course in Iraq even though U.S. troops are fighting
violence "they cannot possibly resolve."

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said increased troop levels ordered earlier this
year to give Iraqi politicians breathing space to meet political and
diplomatic goals have not had the intended result.

"That means our troops are fighting for a peace that we seem more
interested in achieving than the Iraqi politicians do themselves,"
Casey said while delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address.

The White House has said there have been positive developments in Iraq,
such as a reduction in violence and increased economic capacity.

On Friday, Senate Republicans blocked a $50 billion Democratic bill
that would have paid for several months of combat. It also would have
ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days and set a
goal of ending combat in December 2008.

Democrats now plan to sit on Bush's $196 billion request for war
spending until next year, which pushes the Pentagon toward an
accounting nightmare.

Bush has said Congress should not be telling military leaders what to
do.

Casey said the war is costing Americans at all levels. More than 3,800
U.S. troops have died in Iraq _ 178 from his home state of
Pennsylvania. Democrats on Congress' Joint Economic Committee estimated
this past week that more than $1 trillion will have been spent on the
war through next year, he said.

About 170,000 troops will spend Thanksgiving in Iraq, he said.

"They will face hatred they did not create and sectarian violence they
cannot possibly resolve," Casey said. "They are doing a remarkable job,
a heroic job, but the Iraqi leaders are not holding up their end of the
bargain."