Special Report:
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Special report: Tension escalates in
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Related: Bush's Iraq plan focuses on more
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George
W. Bush will announce his new policy on Iraq on Wednesday, the White House said
Monday.
The new plan would be announced in a
nationally-televised speech at 9 p.m. EST, which was expected to include an
increase of up to 20,000 U.S. troops to Iraq.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said he had contacted
television networks to request air time for the president's speech.
Bush's new policy will establish a series of goals
for the Iraqi government to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize
the country politically and economically, according to a report published by The
New York Times on Monday.
Among the "benchmarks" are steps that would draw more
Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the
distribution of oil revenue and ease the government's policy toward former Baath
Party members, senior administration officials were quoted as saying.
More than 3,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in
Iraq since the now increasingly unpopular war started in March 2003.
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As of Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007, at least 3,011 members
of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in
March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. (Xinhua
Photo)
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Democratic leaders in the Congress, meanwhile, plan
to hold a series of hearings this week on Iraq confronting administration
officials.
Democrats, who regained control of both chambers of
Congress in last November's elections, had hoped to emphasize their domestic
agenda in the opening weeks of Congress but have concluded that Iraq will share
top billing, The Washington Post reported.
On Thursday, Democrats will call Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to defend
Bush's war-strategy shift. A House Armed Services Committee hearing with Defense
Secretary Robert Gates and Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
planned for Jan. 19, was abruptly moved to this Thursday.
In the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee will
hold hearings Wednesday on the current situation in Iraq, then grill Rice on the
president's plan Thursday. Gates and Pace will go before the Senate Armed
Services Committee on Friday.
Democratic leaders have also vowed to use their
powers of spending and policy oversight to challenge Bush's expected proposal
this week, as part of broad revision of Iraq strategy, for boosting U.S.
military forces in the country by as many as 20,000 troops.
Calling Iraq a nation in "complete chaos," House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats cast the anticipated Bush plan as an
escalation of the Iraq war that goes against the advice of senior U.S.
commanders, rather than the significant change of course sought by American
voters, and that as a result they would treat the plan - and new funding request
- with strong skepticism, the Post reported.
Related:
U.S. Democratic leaders plan series of hearings on Iraq this
week
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Democratic leaders in
the U.S. Congress plan to confront administration officials at a series of
hearings this week, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
Democrats had hoped to emphasize their domestic
agenda in the opening weeks of Congress but have concluded that Iraq will share
top billing, the report said. Full
story
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