The leading Senate Republican on military affairs surprised the White House yesterday by telling President Bush to “pick a number” on how many U.S. troops to bring home from Iraq by Christmas.
Maj Gen Rick Lynch, who heads a division in central Iraq, said security gains would be lost if the advice of a veteran Republican senator was heeded.
Gen Lynch warned that early withdrawal would compromise security improvements south of Baghdad and allow the “enemy” to come back, with grim consequences.
“We simply cannot, as a nation, stand and put our troops at continuous risk of loss of life and limb without beginning to take some decisive action which will get everybody’s attention,” Mr Warner said on Thursday.
But Warner said Friday that he stands by his remarks and that he did not object to how his views have been characterized.
Sen. John Warner’s suggestion that some troops leave Iraq by the end of the year has roiled the White House, with administration officials saying they’ve asked the influential Republican to clarify that he has not broken politically with President Bush.
“I’m not going to issue any clarification,” Warner, R-Va., said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I don’t think any clarification is needed.”
The political wrangling comes as the White House and Congress are headed toward a showdown on the Iraq war. Next month, Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are expected to update Congress on the results of Bush’s decision earlier this year to send 30,000 additional troops to Iraq.
Congressional Republicans have grown increasingly uneasy about the unpopular war and many say they want to see substantial gains by September or will consider calling for a new strategy, including possibly forcing Bush to draw down troops.
Warner, former chairman of the Armed Services Committee and Navy secretary during the Vietnam War, is seen as someone who could tip the debate in a Senate narrowly split on the issue.
The symbolic gesture, he said, could amount to as few as 5,000 of the 160,000 troops in Iraq being brought home by Christmas. The goal would be to pressure Iraqi leaders to make the political compromises necessary to tamp down sectarian violence.
In a speech Wednesday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bush ripped “politicians in Washington” who would “pull the rug out from under the troops” by demanding withdrawals.
“I can assure the President that this senator in this recommendation that I have for him is not in any way trying to pull the rug out from under the troops,” Warner said.