Democrats urge US pullout from Iraq  
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk

WASHINGTON (US): Democrats accused President George W. Bush of "recklessly" leading America into war in Iraq and called for a withdrawal of US forces, in a blunt rebuttal to the president's annual State of the Union speech.

"This country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years," said Senator James Webb, who was designated to deliver the opposition party's rebuttal to the president's key annual address before Congress.

Bush urged a deeply skeptical US public and wary lawmakers to give his strategy to send 21,500 more US soldiers into battle in Iraq a chance to work, saying he and his commanders had looked "at every possible approach."

But as the president spoke, the first Democratic majority in Congress in 12 years geared to oppose the military operation that has claimed more than 3,000 US lives since the March 2003 invasion.

"The president took us into this war recklessly," Webb declared, saying Bush ignored the counsel even of many of his top advisers in pushing ahead with the invasion.

"The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought -- nor does the majority of our military," he said. "We need a new direction."

Another leading Bush critic, Democrat Senator Barack Obama, who is seeking to run in the 2008 presidential elections to replace Bush, echoed that view, telling the president did little to persuade critics that he was on the right track.

"Most Americans believe that escalation will not bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end, and that's why I've proposed not just a troop cap, but a phased redeployment that will start bringing our troops home," Obama said after the speech.

"What's striking is almost total unanimity that this strategy is not going to work and in fact we should be doing the reverse, we should start drawing down our troops."

"The Pentagon has warned that an escalation of our troop levels in Iraq would lead to an increase in Al-Qaeda attacks, provide more targets for insurgents," said Republican Representative Walter Jones.

"I am persuaded by all available evidence that an escalation of US troop levels is not the way forward in Iraq," said Jones, a one-time staunch Bush supporter, who in recent months has become an outspoken critic.●