Top Dem Urges Colleagues to Push on Iraq

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace, brief the media at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, April 11, 2007. Gates announced that, beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours, three months longer than the usual standard. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson) (Lawrence Jackson - AP)

Bush has repeatedly urged the American public and lawmakers to give his troop increase in Iraq a chance to work.

"It is in our interest to help this young democracy be in a position so it can sustain itself and govern itself and defend itself against these extremists and radicals," Bush said Thursday in the White House's Roosevelt Room after meeting with education leaders.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren told lawmakers Thursday that a decision to keep troops in combat longer was based on recommendations from rank-and-file soldiers who wanted more predictability.

The Pentagon says lengthier stays in Iraq would allow Bush's 30,000-troop buildup in Baghdad to last for another year, if needed.

Soldiers said they would be willing to brave extended tours in Iraq or Afghanistan if it meant being able to tell their families they would be home for a full year before being sent back, Geren said.

Predictability was a more important factor than the impact of the additional three months on the tour, Geren said. "It's a judgment call, but it's based on the feedback from the input from soldiers, from (noncommissioned officers) right up to the top leaders in the Army."

Democrats are seizing on the Pentagon's decision to extend troops' combat tours as evidence that Bush's war policy is failing.

"My view is that the strategy doesn't justify continuing abuse" of soldiers "who have put their lives literally in the hands of our leadership," said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. "I think there are limits to human endurance and I think there are limits to what families can put up with."