U.S. lawmakers urge Bush to revise Iraq policy 

Source: Xinhuanet

10-23-2006 11:13

Senior members of the U.S. Congress urged President George W. Bush on Sunday to revise the administration's Iraq policy, two weeks before the midterm congressional elections that could bring a change of control over the legislature.

Related : Bush will not change Iraq policy

While Democrats continued their calls for a new strategy in Iraq, some Republican lawmakers joined their Democratic colleagues in calling the administration for a change in its Iraq policy.

Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said there was a need for " radical change" in the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.

"The truth of the matter is there's a need for radical change in policy," he told the Fox News television.

Biden said there was a need for a political solution in Iraq and a bipartisan solution in Washington. "Without those two things happening, there is no possibility, in my view, we succeed in Iraq, " he said.

Democratic Senator John Kerry, the party's presidential candidate in 2004, told ABC television's "This Week" that a political rather than military solution was needed for Iraq. He also urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to give the Iraqi army more authority to improve security. "It is their job, not the U.S. coalition forces' to subdue and get rid of these private militias," he said.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the United States was drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to address sectarian divisions and assume a larger role in securing the country. The plan, which was to be presented to al-Maliki before the end of the year, would not threaten Maliki with a withdrawal of U.S. troop, the Times said.

The plan would for the first time ask the Iraqi government to agree to a schedule of specific milestones, like disarming sectarian militias, and to a broad set of other political, economic and military benchmarks intended to stabilize the country, the report said.

Republican Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was encouraged by the reported plan but that the White House should act quickly. "I don't believe that a shift in tactics ought to wait until after the election (of Nov. 7). There are too many casualties there," he told CNN's "Late Edition" program.

"If we have a better course, we ought to adopt it sooner rather than later," he said.

The reported plan showed "the forward thinking" of the administration, Republican Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told "Fox News Sunday."

Editor:Sun Luying