GOP Senate Bigwigs Push for Iraq Shift

Lugar, Warner seek redeployment, want specifics by October
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 14, 2007 11:22 AM CDT
GOP Senate Bigwigs Push for Iraq Shift
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., meets reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Nov. 8, 2006 file photo. Warner and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., cast aside President Bush's pleas for patience on Iraq Friday, July 13, 2007 and proposed legislation demanding a new strategy by mid-October to restrict the...   (Associated Press)

Two of the GOP's most respected foreign policy experts want troop realignment in Iraq, and they proposed Senate legislation yesterday that calls for the White House to have a plan in place by mid-October. The move by Richard Lugar and John Warner was the latest sign of disintegrating Republican support for President Bush's Iraq strategy, the Washington Post reports.

The measure, formulated as an amendment to a defense-appropriation bill, is largely nonbinding, but the October deadline—a month after the military's legislatively mandated update on the troop surge—is a clear challenge to the president. "We believe the new-way-forward strategy, which became fully operational less than a month ago, deserves the time to succeed," a White House spokesman said. (More Richard Lugar stories.)

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