Choices Dwindle if Iraq War Plan Fails

Iraqi policeman tries to keep bystanders away from the scene of a car bomb blast in al-Amil neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007. At least three civilians were hurt in the blast. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed ) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

WASHINGTON -- If the revamped Iraq war plan fails, it will be time to withdraw most U.S. troops. Or send more in. The United States is seen as having a limited number of options, all grim, if President Bush's "new way forward" hits a wall. The pressure for U.S. disengagement will be immense. Yet a further escalation, however unimaginable now, may not be out of the question.

Few expect helicopters to beat the air over Baghdad in a hasty retreat of the kind that closed the books on America's defeat in Vietnam. The Mideast and its oil are too important.

"We were able to walk away from Vietnam," said Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of war there. "If we walk away on Iraq, we'll be back, possibly in the context of a wider war in the world's most volatile region."

The administration is almost certainly considering fallback options if the latest plan falls apart. Officials are loath to talk about them.

Over two days of intense hearings on Capitol Hill last week, lawmakers raised questions at the margins about a Plan B even as they probed and for the most part attacked Plan A: Bush's move to increase U.S. forces to give Iraqis more time to take control of their own security.

Administration officials, defending a war that many in the U.S. and much of the world thinks is failing already, would not discuss what options will be left if the new approach fails. "Re-evaluate our strategy," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

Yet he hinted that the planned troop increase need not take place in its entirety if conditions change. "We are trying to construct this in a way that there are off-ramps," he said, so that "you don't necessarily have to go to the full extent of the buildup."

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified, "You're asking a Marine who's focused on winning whether he has a plan in case he doesn't win."

"Yes," came the response from Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

Pace would not address the question. Nor would he discuss any exit strategy _ a "pejorative get-out-of-town" phrase he said he did not like.

But if the plan does not work, he said, "our flow of forces will allow us to modify what we do next."

Bush's plan to add 21,500 more U.S. troops to the 132,000 already in Iraq will add to the stress on a military already overburdened and force longer and more frequent tours of duty on combat troops. An additional escalation would intensify the problem _ with no ready solutions on how it would be achieved.