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WASHINGTON - As new bombings killed dozens in Kirkuk and Baghdad yesterday, senior Democrats crafted a bipartisan Senate resolution opposing President George W. Bush's latest troop "surge", and lambasted the Administration for its failure to take in more Iraqi refugees.
Less than 24 hours after co-ordinated explosions at a Baghdad university killed over 60 people, 17 more died in a suicide bombing at a market in the Shiite Sadr City district of the capital. In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, 10 people were killed in a car bombing at a checkpoint outside a police station.
The latest blood-letting came as the United States and Iraqi security forces prepared to launch a new offensive to restore order, backed by the despatch of up to 21,500 more US troops to Baghdad and the insurgent strong-hold of al-Anbar province.
At the same time, the Shiite-led Government of Nouri Maliki claimed to have made progress on new laws sharing oil revenues and part-lifting a ban on former Ba'ath party members - steps Washington says are vital if all-out civil war is to be avoided.
But opposition continues to grow against Bush, who in his latest of several TV interviews to rally support behind his policy, said his previous approach amounted to a "slow failure". Withdrawal and "hope for the best" were no more than "expedited failure", the President told the NewsHour programme.
But his plans drew forthright new criticism yesterday from New York senator Hillary Clinton, just back from a factfinding visit to Baghdad. She called for a cap on the US force in Iraq at the current 132,000 level.
The pressure on Bush will grow further later this week when the Senate considers a non-binding but high-profile resolution expressing opposition to the troop buildup - an idea backed by more than 60 per cent of the public, according to a new poll here.
The text has been worked out by Senators Joe Biden and Carl Levin, Democratic chairmen respectively of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, and the Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel - a longstanding critic of the war.
The resolution, which declares that "it is not in the US national interest to deepen its involvement in Iraq", could come to a floor vote as Bush delivers his State of the Union address next week. It will be backed by almost every Democrat as well as by up to a dozen Republicans.
The Administration has also been roundly criticised by Democrats for not taking in more refugees from Iraq, especially ordinary people who had risked their lives by working with the US or who were brave enough to denounce those responsible for the sectarian excesses.
So far the US has admitted only 466 refugees since 2003, even though State Department officials told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that 1.7 million Iraqis had been displaced by the violence, and hundreds of thousands had fled abroad, especially to Jordan and Syria.
- INDEPENDENT
