thedrifter
01-21-07, 06:12 PM
McCain, Graham May Oppose General Casey as Army Chief of Staff
By Nadine Elsibai
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham, who have strongly backed sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, indicated they may not support a promotion for the current military commander there because of past U.S. mistakes.
McCain, senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program that he likely won't support General George Casey's nomination as Army chief of staff because of the ``failed leadership'' of the U.S. forces in Iraq. Graham, another Republican member of the panel, said on CNN that Casey will face ``hard questions'' during confirmation hearings.
President George W. Bush announced earlier this month he is replacing Casey as commanding general of multinational forces in Iraq and nominating him to the Pentagon post. Casey has been the top commander in Iraq since July 2004, and sectarian violence there has worsened over the past year. McCain is a leading Republican voice on military matters and, along with Graham, has been pushing the president to commit more forces to the fight. Bush announced Jan. 10 he will send 21,500 more soldiers and Marines into Iraq.
``I have very serious concerns about General Casey's nomination,'' McCain, of Arizona, said. ``I'm concerned about failed leadership, the message that sends to the rest of the military.''
The strategy advocated by Casey and General John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, ``has not produced the outcomes we all desire in Iraq,'' Graham, of South Carolina, said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program. ``And General Casey will be held to account for the advice he's given in the past.''
Changes
Abizaid is retiring. Bush picked Admiral William Fallon to replace Abizaid as head of military operations in the Middle East and Lieutenant General David Petraeus to replace Casey in Iraq.
Before Bush's announcement, the U.S. had about 132,000 troops in Iraq. Casey said last week that the additional troops will be in Iraq until ``late summer.'' More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have died since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, including 12 who killed in a helicopter crash yesterday, according to the Defense Department. At least 10 more were killed in insurgent attacks or by roadside bombs.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers continued to voice opposition to Bush's strategy. Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska are sponsoring a nonbinding resolution opposing the addition of more troops to Iraq.
``I want every member of the United States Senate to have to take a position on this,'' Hagel said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program. ``We have kids dying every day. It is wrong to put American troops in the middle of a sectarian civil war.''
Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program that the U.S. should ``keep the pressure on the Iraqis to reach a political settlement and not deepen our military involvement, which adds targets but doesn't add much in the way of pressure.''
Levin has called for the U.S. to set a timetable of four to six months for withdrawing most of its forces from the country and is planning hearings on Bush's strategy.
`Wrong Way'
Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee said today that Bush is trying to fix the Iraq problem ``the exact wrong way'' as he and Vice President Dick Cheney maintain that withdrawing from Iraq would only embolden the enemy.
Bush isn't ``listening to his military,'' Biden said on the Fox program. ``He's not listening to his old secretaries of state. He's not listening to his old friends. He's not listening to anybody but Cheney, and Cheney is dead-wrong.''
Congressional Democrats opposed to the plan, along with some Republicans, are exploring options to block Bush's strategy by attaching conditions to future military spending measures or passing legislation that requires the president to ask Congress to authorize a troop increase.
In a recent Newsweek magazine poll, 68 percent of the U.S. public opposed Bush's deployment of more troops to Iraq, including 45 percent who said they were strongly opposed. Twenty-six percent favored the approach.
The poll found that more people had confidence in the new Democratic congressional leaders to make decisions on Iraq, with 55 percent saying they trusted the Democrats more than the Republican president. Thirty-two percent said they had more faith in Bush.
The poll, released yesterday, has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. It is based on interviews of 1,003 adults on Jan. 17 and 18.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 21, 2007 15:36 EST
Ellie
By Nadine Elsibai
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham, who have strongly backed sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, indicated they may not support a promotion for the current military commander there because of past U.S. mistakes.
McCain, senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program that he likely won't support General George Casey's nomination as Army chief of staff because of the ``failed leadership'' of the U.S. forces in Iraq. Graham, another Republican member of the panel, said on CNN that Casey will face ``hard questions'' during confirmation hearings.
President George W. Bush announced earlier this month he is replacing Casey as commanding general of multinational forces in Iraq and nominating him to the Pentagon post. Casey has been the top commander in Iraq since July 2004, and sectarian violence there has worsened over the past year. McCain is a leading Republican voice on military matters and, along with Graham, has been pushing the president to commit more forces to the fight. Bush announced Jan. 10 he will send 21,500 more soldiers and Marines into Iraq.
``I have very serious concerns about General Casey's nomination,'' McCain, of Arizona, said. ``I'm concerned about failed leadership, the message that sends to the rest of the military.''
The strategy advocated by Casey and General John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, ``has not produced the outcomes we all desire in Iraq,'' Graham, of South Carolina, said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program. ``And General Casey will be held to account for the advice he's given in the past.''
Changes
Abizaid is retiring. Bush picked Admiral William Fallon to replace Abizaid as head of military operations in the Middle East and Lieutenant General David Petraeus to replace Casey in Iraq.
Before Bush's announcement, the U.S. had about 132,000 troops in Iraq. Casey said last week that the additional troops will be in Iraq until ``late summer.'' More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have died since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, including 12 who killed in a helicopter crash yesterday, according to the Defense Department. At least 10 more were killed in insurgent attacks or by roadside bombs.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers continued to voice opposition to Bush's strategy. Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska are sponsoring a nonbinding resolution opposing the addition of more troops to Iraq.
``I want every member of the United States Senate to have to take a position on this,'' Hagel said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program. ``We have kids dying every day. It is wrong to put American troops in the middle of a sectarian civil war.''
Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program that the U.S. should ``keep the pressure on the Iraqis to reach a political settlement and not deepen our military involvement, which adds targets but doesn't add much in the way of pressure.''
Levin has called for the U.S. to set a timetable of four to six months for withdrawing most of its forces from the country and is planning hearings on Bush's strategy.
`Wrong Way'
Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee said today that Bush is trying to fix the Iraq problem ``the exact wrong way'' as he and Vice President Dick Cheney maintain that withdrawing from Iraq would only embolden the enemy.
Bush isn't ``listening to his military,'' Biden said on the Fox program. ``He's not listening to his old secretaries of state. He's not listening to his old friends. He's not listening to anybody but Cheney, and Cheney is dead-wrong.''
Congressional Democrats opposed to the plan, along with some Republicans, are exploring options to block Bush's strategy by attaching conditions to future military spending measures or passing legislation that requires the president to ask Congress to authorize a troop increase.
In a recent Newsweek magazine poll, 68 percent of the U.S. public opposed Bush's deployment of more troops to Iraq, including 45 percent who said they were strongly opposed. Twenty-six percent favored the approach.
The poll found that more people had confidence in the new Democratic congressional leaders to make decisions on Iraq, with 55 percent saying they trusted the Democrats more than the Republican president. Thirty-two percent said they had more faith in Bush.
The poll, released yesterday, has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. It is based on interviews of 1,003 adults on Jan. 17 and 18.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 21, 2007 15:36 EST
Ellie