The Daily Background

Republican Senator Gordon Smith (Oregon) and several other Senators (said to be about 30 in total) met with President Bush for roughly a half hour who told him and the others that he had decided on an escalation plan devised by Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Smith says the President has settled on sending about 20,000 troops to Iraq. He gave no further details.

Recent reports have indicated that there are only about 9,000 additional troops available for deployment, however the remainder of the force could be supplied by extending the tours of duty for troops currently in Iraq by several months. Another technique the military could use is deployment acceleration: speeding up already-planned deployments so they happen ahead of schedule. The Associated Press says the following:

President Bush’s decision to send up to 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq will create “a classic war powers confrontation” between the White House and Congress, Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith predicted Monday after meeting with Bush.

I’ve heard that Smith personally, who recently said the war in Iraq may be criminal, will oppose the “surge” or escalation of the conflict in Iraq, though I haven’t found any media reports that say it yet.

President Bush will formally announce his new Iraq policy plan on Wednesday night. The networks will have pool coverage starting at 9PM EST, and the address is expected to last roughly 25 minutes.

Democrats had hoped that the headlines and evening news would be dominated by votes in Congress to bolster homeland security, raise the minimum wage, fund stem cell research and grant the federal government authority to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare. Each of those measures will be taken up on sequential days this week, a bill-a-day approach designed to capture headlines and show the nation that Democrats can get things done.

But with Bush’s long-awaited policy address tentatively set for midweek, those much-touted bills are not likely to lead the news, and the Democratic leaders have been forced to change their tactics.

I have heard that it is unlikely that the networks will allow Democrats to respond in a televised address afterwards as is customarily allowed for the State of the Union Address (though there is a small chance this may happen still), but Democrats are adjusting their 100-hours agenda plan on Thursday, the day afterwards. Democrats had previously scheduled Thursday for stem cell legislation.

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who also met with President Bush today, said that the President did not share any details with them about the escalation, its goals or any benchmarks that the President may introduce come Wednesday night.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog