Biden Vows to Fight Any Iraq Troop Boost

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., answers a question after he addressed the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York in this Nov. 21, 2005 file photo. In a crowded Democratic field overshadowed by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a Biden candidacy may seem a bit of an anachronism. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of potential Democratic candidates taken earlier this month, Biden won the support of just four percent of respondents, trailing Clinton, Obama, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) (Richard Drew - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, said Tuesday he would oppose any effort by President Bush to increase U.S troops in Iraq as part of a new war strategy.

Biden also announced he has summoned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify before his committee next month to discuss the administration's new plan for Iraq as soon as it is made public.

The Delaware Democrat took advantage of a quiet holiday week to draw attention to his own proposal for Iraq, which includes beginning a drawdown of U.S. forces and finding a political settlement among the various ethnic factions there.

Biden has spoken candidly of his desire to run for president and has made repeated visits in the past year to early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire. But he is trying to find room on a crowded stage of Democratic contenders that includes Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.

"It is my intention to seek the nomination, and it's my intention sometime in the month of January to set up the appropriate mechanism to be able to raise money for that purpose," he said Tuesday.

Biden warned that congressional Republicans _ not Democrats _ would suffer in the 2008 elections if they do not join him in speaking out against Bush and opposing troop increases in Iraq.

"Absent some profound political announcement . . . I can't imagine there being an overwhelming, even significant support for the president's position," he told reporters during a telephone conference call Tuesday.

If the violence continues two years from now, "every one of those Republican senators _ and there's 21 of them up for re- election _ knows that that is likely to spell his or her doom," Biden said.

Bush has not announced whether he plans to increase the number of troops in Iraq, but administration officials say that option is among several being considered. Also, Bush last week said he wants to expand the size of the Army and Marine Corps to lessen the strain on ground forces.

The move was seen by many military experts as laying the groundwork to announce early next month a planned surge in forces in Iraq.

Military experts and some ground commanders are skeptical that a surge in ground forces could work to settle the violence in Iraq. Those concerns were expressed in a new bipartisan report on Iraq.

"Sustained increases in U.S. troop levels would not solve the fundamental cause of violence in Iraq, which is the absence of national reconciliation," the Iraq Study Group concluded.