Senate Democrats reacted critically to a report Sunday that the U.S. commander in Iraq privately presented a plan for significant troop reductions in the same week they came under attack by the GOP for trying to set a timetable for withdrawal.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the plan attributed to Gen. George Casey resembled the thinking of many Democrats who voted for a non-binding resolution to begin a troop drawdown this December. That resolution was defeated Thursday on a largely party-line vote in the Senate.
“That means the only people who have fought us and fought us against the timetable, the only one still saying there shouldn’t be a timetable really are the Republicans in the United States Senate and in the Congress,” Boxer said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Now it turns out we’re in synch with Gen. Casey.”
Sen. Carl Levin, one of the two sponsors of the non-binding resolution, which offered no pace or completion date for a withdrawal, said the report was another sign of what he called one of the “worst-kept secrets in town,” that the administration intends to pull troops out before the midterm elections in November.
“It shouldn’t be a political decision, but it is going to be with this administration,” Levin (D-Mich.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s as clear as your face, which is mighty clear, that before this election, this November, there’s going to be troop reductions in Iraq, and the president will then claim some kind of progress or victory.”
At issue was a report in The New York Times that Casey presented a private briefing at the Pentagon last week projecting the number of American combat brigades, each numbering about 3,500 troops, would decrease from 14 to five or six by the end of 2007. There are now about 127,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including many support troops beyond the combat brigades.
White House and Pentagon officials declined to confirm the projections, saying only that Casey met with President Bush on Friday to discuss how the military might proceed in Iraq after the formation of a new government by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Bush has often said the U.S. military will stand down as Iraqi forces become adequately trained to handle security. American commanders in Iraq have long made no secret of their desire to reduce U.S. troop levels there.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored an unsuccessful resolution setting a July 1, 2007, deadline for the removal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, issued a statement saying the Casey plan looks “an awful lot like what the Republicans spent the last week attacking. Will the partisan attack dogs now turn their venom and disinformation campaign on Gen. Casey?”
But Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, played down the significance of the reported Casey briefing.
“The department has drawn up plans at all times, but I think it would be wrong now to say that this is the plan that we’re going to operate under,” Warner said on “Fox News Sunday.”
