U.S. Prepares to Increase Troop Numbers in Iraq

MARGARET WARNER:

As the president prepared to order a surge of an expected 20,000 American troops to Iraq, two senators, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham and Connecticut Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman, called a joint news conference to make the case.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (ID), Connecticut: The one policy that we have not really followed in Iraq, the one alternative we have not taken, is to send an adequate number of American troops there to maintain the security of the country. And the alternative to trying this is to accept defeat.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), South Carolina: We can stand with the moderate forces, as imperfect as they are, or we can turn this country over to the extremists. It has to be at least 20,000 to make a difference, and it has to go long enough to make a difference.

MARGARET WARNER:

But over the weekend, leading congressional Democrats expressed strong opposition to the expected troop increase.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lead off with a strongly worded letter to President Bush on Friday, saying, "Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed. Like many current and former military leaders, we believe that trying again would be a serious mistake."

BOB SCHIEFFER, Host, "Face the Nation": Today, we'll hear Nancy Pelosi talk about the war in Iraq.

MARGARET WARNER:

On Sunday, Pelosi said the president can expect a tough grilling on his plan from the new Democratically controlled Congress. She spoke on CBS.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-Calif.), Speaker of the House: If the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it. And this is new for him, because, up until now, the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions.

We will always support the troops who are there. If the president wants to expand the mission, that's a conversation he has to have with the Congress of the United States. But this is not a carte blanche, a blank check to him to do whatever he wishes there.

TIM RUSSERT, Host, "Meet the Press": With us, for the Democrats, Senator Joe Biden…

MARGARET WARNER:

But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden of Delaware said on NBC that Congress can't do much to keep the president from taking that step.

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), Delaware: There's not much I can do about it, not much anybody can do about it. He's commander-in-chief. If he surges another 20,000, 30,000, whatever number he's going to, into Baghdad, it will be a tragic mistake, in my view. But as a practical matter, there's no way to say, "Mr. President, stop."

MARGARET WARNER:

One of the new senior commanders in Iraq, Army General Raymond Odierno, said yesterday that a beefed-up American force would be used to clear violent areas of Baghdad and then remain in those neighborhoods to maintain control.

Previous joint U.S.-Iraqi efforts to secure restive parts of the capital have failed once American troops left the area.