Congress warned about timetable

Gen. John Abizaid urged quick action to strengthen Iraq's government.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top U.S. commander in the Middle East warned Congress Wednesday against setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, rejecting the arguments of resurgent Democrats who are pressing President Bush to start pulling out.
Gen. John Abizaid instead urged quick action to strengthen Iraq's government, predicting that the vicious sectarian violence in Baghdad would surge out of control within four to six months unless immediate steps were taken.
"Our troop posture needs to stay where it is," and the use of military adviser teams embedded with Iraqi army and police forces needs to be expanded, Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee. It was the first hearing on Iraq policy since last week's elections gave Democrats control of both houses of Congress starting in January.
Election interpretation
The voting last week has been widely interpreted as a public repudiation of Bush's policies on the war, which has left more than 2,850 U.S. troops dead and more than 20,000 others wounded.
Democrats have coalesced around the idea of starting to remove American troops in the next few months, and increasing numbers of Republicans have been openly critical of the war. The day after the election, Bush expressed an openness to considering fresh ideas on Iraq and announced the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"Hope is not a strategy," Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a prospective 2008 presidential candidate, said at Wednesday's hearing. Citing the Bush administration's repeated claims of progress, Clinton said she saw no evidence that the Iraqi government was ready to make hard decisions, including taking firm action to disarm or neutralize sectarian militias.
"The brutal fact is, it is not happening," she said.
Even so, Abizaid said it was too soon to give up on the Iraqis or to announce a timetable for starting a U.S. troop withdrawal.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the panel, said after the hearing that he planned to work with Democrats to produce by January a bipartisan recommendation to the president on a way ahead in Iraq.
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