Senate panel rejects Bush plan
2007-01-24 23:48
Washington - A US senate committee on
Wednesday rejected President George W Bush's plan to add
troops in Iraq, sending the measure to the full senate for a
vote expected next week.
On a bipartisan vote of 12-9, the senate foreign relations
committee approved a resolution expressing clear disapproval of
Bush's Iraq policy, a day after he asked congress to give it
more time to work.
The vote is non-binding, but supporters hope
it will convince the president to reconsider.
In his state of the union address to a defiant congress on
Tuesday, Bush insisted it was not too late to shape the outcome
in Iraq with a new strategy.
"I ask you to give it a chance to
work," Bush said in the speech, the first time he faced a house
of representatives and senate both controlled by Democrats.
Democratic senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the committee's
chair, said the resolution was "not an attempt to embarrass
the president. ... It is an attempt to save the president from
making a significant mistake with regard to our policy in
Iraq".
- Reuters