Senate Democrat (Levin) aims for U.S. troop limits in Iraq

Senate Democrat aims for U.S. troop limits in Iraq

By Thomas Ferraro 41 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Sunday his party aims to limit the role of the nearly 140,000 American troops in
Iraq and withdraw most of them from the war-torn country within a year.


But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) said it was unclear if enough Senate Republicans would break ranks with
President George W. Bush to allow the effort to proceed.

Levin said Democrats do "not yet" have the needed 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to clear an anticipated roadblock and modify the 2002 congressional resolution that authorized Bush to wage war in Iraq."

"We hope to pick up some Republicans. We don't know if we will," Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said on NBC's "Meet the Press.".....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070225/pl_nm/usa_iraq_dc_1;_ylt=AuOAfRW_.W0bJxHdKuXHCxCGOrgF

Levin said Democrats aim to remove most U.S. forces by March 2008, but, "We don't believe it is going to be possible to remove all of the troops."

He said an undetermined number would be needed for training and supporting Iraqi troops and "a counter-terrorism purpose or a mission because there is about 5,000 al Qaeda in Iraq."

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said that while Congress has an important oversight role to play, they should avoid "micromanagement" of the war.

"When it comes to the execution of policy in the field, that has to be a clean relationship between the commander in chief and the commanders in the field," Rice told ABC's "This Week."

"If you ever disrupt that chain, then you're going to have the worst of micromanagement of the military affairs," Rice warned.