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In an usually strong show of unity, 12 senior Democrats from the House and Senate have written President Bush to call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year, asserting that the "open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained."

Their letter, sent Sunday as Senate Republican leaders were hoping to squeeze in action on the fiscal 2007 Defense appropriations bill before the August recess, foreshadows what could be another intense floor debate on the Iraq war. It also demonstrates a growing consensus among influential Democrats in both chambers who are increasingly frustrated with the ongoing operations and prefer to hand control of Iraqi security to the Iraqis.

"U.S. forces in Iraq should transition to a more limited mission focused on counterterrorism, training and logistical support of Iraqi security forces, and force protection of U.S. personnel," the Democrats wrote. "Mr. President, simply staying the course in Iraq is not working."

Last month, Senate Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., sponsored an unsuccessful amendment to the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill that would have required the military to begin decreasing the size of the U.S. force deployed to Iraq by the end of this year.

The amendment failed, 60-39, after several days of debate, exposing heated partisan disagreement over how to proceed in Iraq. "The intent [of the letter] was to get the folks who signed on to the Levin amendment on the Senate side, plus a relatively broad group of House Democratic leaders over here," a House Democratic aide explained Monday.

While the letter includes the signatures of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., plus others who have spearheaded various troop withdrawal proposals, such as Levin and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member John Murtha, D-Pa., several less outspoken Democrats such as Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, House Intelligence ranking member Jane Harman of California and House International Relations ranking member Tom Lantos of California, added their names.

Meanwhile, Democrats are "still discussing what to offer" as an amendment to the $453.5 billion Defense spending bill, including language addressing a phased withdrawal of troops, a Reid spokesman said Monday. "Timing for everything is very much up in the air." The Senate had hoped to begin consideration on the Defense spending measure as early as Tuesday, but prospects for completing the bill before the recess dimmed significantly in recent days.

As the clock ticks down on the August break, the Defense appropriations bill was vying for floor time with pension overhaul legislation, a measure to slash the estate tax and an offshore energy production bill. A Senate leadership aide acknowledged the Defense measure is likely to slip into September.

Greta Wodele contributed to this report.

COMMENTS

• Regardless of whether or not Iraq had anything directly to do with 9/11, the fact remains that Saddam Hussein supported terrorism with funding and training camps (remember his payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers?). He was also a butcher who murdered thousands, and terrorized millions. Your argument is equivalent to saying that we shouldn't have fought Hitler in World War II, because it was the Japanese who attacked us at Pearl Harbor, not the Nazis. Terrorism is a worldwide problem involving fanatics in many countries. To go after only one group just allows the rest to grow stronger until they too attack us. We have to take out all those who threaten us, not just one group. Oh, by the way, we have more than 20,000 military personnel in Afghanistan, as well as almost 15,000 NATO troops as well as the Afghan army and police, so your argument about abandoning the fight against Al Qaeda there is wrong. In fact, Al Qaeda is in many places besides Afghanistan, and it is fighting us in Iraq as well. You need to take your blinders off, and look at the big picture, rather than just being fixated on only one front in the global war on terror. GovExec.com reader Posted September 15, 2006 5:02 PM
• You're right. The enemy is everywhere, especially in this country where our own government is trying to turn us into that which we claim to hate. If we were truly interested in not ignoring attacks on this country we wouldn't have cut and run from the fight against those who masterminded 9/11 -- al Qaeda and Bin Laden as opposed to Iraq and Hussein. Bush's folly into Iraq has decreased our resources and ability to capture and bring to justice those who were truly responsible. Blame Clinton all you want, but 9/11 happened on Bush's watch while he was on vacation. The CIA said as early as September 2002 that Iraq had no connection to 9/11. Bush and Cheney's own words that even if they had known before the invasion all they know today they would still have invaded shows that they intended to go in no matter what the evidence proved, period! Think how much security the $400 billion we've wasted in Iraq would have given us here at home. I don't see how you expect to win the war as terrorism when your government's policies are only creating more terrorists. GovExec.com reader Posted September 15, 2006 7:09 AM
• The enemy is not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in this country, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain, Morocco, Indonesia, the Philippines, and all over the world. What would you have done? Nothing? Oh, that's already been tried by the previous administration. Guess that didn't work either, which is why we are today paying tribute to the memories of the thousands of innocent lives lost five years ago. Yes, mistakes have been made, but the biggest mistake of all was to ignore the previous attacks upon us, until we suffered tremendous losses on 9/11. Face it, you can't reason with these people, who only want to convert us to Islam, or kill us as "infidels." GovExec.com reader Posted September 11, 2006 3:40 PM