Warner Backs Resolution Opposing Troop Increase

The House Republican benchmarks also represented a clear break from administration policy. Under the proposal, every 30 days the White House would have to present Congress clear measurements showing the Iraqi government's progress in purging insurgents and terrorists from its security forces, identifying the level of combat experience for Iraqi army battalions, tracking expenditures on Iraqi army equipment and measuring the effectiveness of the police force in Baghdad. The administration would also have to measure Iraqi government efforts to breed tolerance among its country's warring sects.

House Republicans also called on the administration to measure its efforts to cooperate with neighboring countries to stabilize Iraq, a push for regional diplomacy that the White House has resisted.

"We have a responsibility to reach across the aisle and to work with our Democrat counterparts to perform our obligation under the Constitution," Boehner said. "We're a separate branch of the government. We were sent here by the American people, and we believe that proper oversight of this plan and implementation of this plan can help make it successful."

Some Republican aides saw both the Senate and House developments as positive for Bush, because they give Republicans eager to voice their opposition to the president's Iraq policy ways to go on record without siding with the more forthright statements of opposition drafted with more Democratic support.

But Democrats characterized the development as strong evidence of Bush's eroding support. The Foreign Relations Committee will take up the Biden-Hagel language tomorrow and send a modified version for debate in the full Senate next week.

The Warner group has largely reached the same conclusion as Biden, Hagel and Levin: U.S. troops should focus on protecting Iraq's border, combating terrorism and training Iraqi forces, and the administration should step up diplomatic efforts to start a regional peace process.

Committee aides said they will study the Warner resolution and are almost certain to make changes to win support from his coalition.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor yesterday to implore his colleagues not to go through with a vote on any resolution of opposition, calling the effort "pernicious" and "very, very dangerous."