Senate Republicans block U.S. troop rest plan

Senate Republicans block U.S. troop rest plan
By Susan Cornwell
37 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a proposal to give American troops in Iraq more rest from battle, as Democrats renewed their attempts to change President George W. Bush's Iraq policy
While the White House won this initial skirmish on a military policy bill, it lost support of seven of Bush's fellow Republicans in the Senate's vote on requiring minimum rest times between troop deployments. Six of the Republicans are up for re-election next year.
Trying to calm dissent among a growing number of Republicans over the war, the White House dispatched national security adviser Stephen Hadley to Capitol Hill for the second straight day, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned lawmakers.
Rice and Hadley urged senators to back Bush's determination to wait until September for an evaluation of the mission by Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, instead of embracing some lawmakers' attempts to impose change now.

LinkHere

Senate Republicans Kill Webb's Troop-Protection Amendment