Bush team faces hostile Democrats over new plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and his top military and diplomatic team tried to convince a hostile Democratic-led Congress and a skeptical U.S. public on Thursday that his plan to send more troops to Iraq will work.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, heading to Capitol Hill for an expected grilling from lawmakers, insisted to reporters that Bush's new plan will put more pressure on Iraqis to take over their own security.

Democrats who want a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to start in four to six months were unswayed. As Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, its Democratic chairman offered a tough view.

"I believe the president's strategy is not a solution," said the chairman, Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden. "I believe it's a tragic mistake."

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Gates said the U.S. deployment of an extra 21,500 troops will take place in waves -- "there will be no D-Day" -- and indicated they might not all be sent if the Iraqi government is not keeping its end of the bargain.

While Bush gave no timetable for the Iraqis to perform in his White House address on Wednesday night, Gates said Washington should know whether the Iraqis are capable within a couple of months.

"The timetable for the introduction of additional U.S. forces will provide ample opportunity early on, and before many of the additional U.S. troops actually arrive in Iraq, to evaluate the progress of this endeavor and whether the Iraqis are fulfilling their commitments to us," he said.

Under the new plan, Iraqi troops are to help sweep neighborhoods clean of insurgents regardless of sectarian influences. Gates was pressed on whether radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, headed of the Mehdi Army, could be reined in under this policy.

"What I will say is that all parts of Baghdad are going to be involved in this campaign, including Sadr City," Gates said.

Democrats, and some Republicans, were solidly opposed to the troop increase.

"This is a dangerously wrong-headed strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at a great cost," said Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel.

But Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who had lobbied hard for a troop increase, said it was the right decision.