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Bush says he'd veto Iraq deadline

While Senate criticism grew, he said he would block any legislation that set a troop-pullout date.

WASHINGTON - President Bush threatened yesterday to veto legislation that would set a date for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, despite growing bipartisan calls in Congress for an end to U.S. participation in the war and sharp criticism of Iraq's government.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, told the Associated Press that the administration, in a 23-page classified report, would point to limited progress being made by the American-backed government in Baghdad while acknowledging benchmarks were unmet.

The interim assessment, which will be presented on Capitol Hill tomorrow, finds the Iraqi government has failed to pass long-promised laws that Washington has called key to national cohesion and economic recovery, such as legislation that would fairly divide Iraq's oil resources.

But in a glass-half-full approach, the report will emphasize that the Iraqi government is making some progress in about half the areas identified earlier this year by Congress. Other areas in which it is not making significant gains will be dismissed as less critical to long-term success in Iraq, the officials said.

One senior administration official who has read the report said it gave Iraq's government a grade of "incomplete."

As the Senate opened a new debate on the conflict, one of Bush's staunchest supporters, Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond (R., Mo.), said the administration had pursued the wrong policy for years after toppling Saddam Hussein.

"The strategy we had before was not the right strategy," he said. "We should have had a counterinsurgency strategy."

Asked later who bore responsibility for the error, Bond said: "Ultimately, obviously, the president."

Democrats said Bush's newest strategy was hardly a success, either.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said that since Bush ordered thousands more troops to Iraq last winter, "we've lost more than 600 troops, costing the American taxpayers more than $60 billion. The escalation has done nothing to bring the Iraqi government together. It's done absolutely nothing to lessen the violence in Iraq."

Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island back legislation to require a troop withdrawal to begin within 120 days, to be completed by the end of April.

A vote is expected next week, and Reid said nearly all Senate Democrats supported the proposal. Republican Gordon H. Smith of Oregon supports it as well, and Olympia J. Snowe (R., Maine) told reporters she might switch her position and vote for it, too.

The proposal appeared to be short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a threatened Republican filibuster. Bush's veto threat applied to any legislation that would set an arbitrary date for withdrawal "without regard to conditions on the ground or the recommendations of commanders."

"Setting a date for withdrawal is equivalent to setting a date for failure," he said in a written statement that employed terms similar to those he used earlier this year when he vetoed legislation that would have set a target date for a withdrawal.

Also expected to come to a vote in the next two weeks is a plan to place into law recommendations from last winter's report from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. The group called for removing all combat brigades not needed for training, force protection and counterterrorism by March 31. In an ominous sign for the White House, six Republicans have signaled support for the proposal, along with six Democrats.

Despite a steady procession of Republicans calling for a change in course, several GOP lawmakers warned against a precipitous withdrawal.

"I believe that our military in cooperation with our Iraqi security forces are making progress in a number of areas," said Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), recently back from his sixth trip to the region. The GOP presidential candidate said he noted a dramatic drop in attacks in Ramadi in western Anbar province.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who accompanied McCain to Iraq, also cited progress since Gen. David Petraeus took command several months ago and the additional troops began arriving.

The Iraqis are "rejecting al-Qaeda at every turn," he said. "I don't want the Congress to be the cavalry for al-Qaeda."

Graham was also part of a group of senators who met privately during the day with Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, and Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, a top adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Graham said afterward that the White House was looking at new ways to hasten progress in two primary areas: destroying al-Qaeda in Iraq, and forcing the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad to make political progress.

Bush, in Cleveland, said issues related to troop strength "will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington, D.C."

He called on Congress to give Petraeus "a chance to come back and tell us whether his strategy is working, and then we can work together on a way forward."

Petraeus is expected to make his report in September, but Bush also must give Congress the imminent evaluation on the progress made by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in several areas of political and economic change.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would specify no benchmarks that had been met. He conceded that the most prominent goals had not - enactment of legislation to allocate oil and gas revenue among the Iraqis, or a law to address consequences of the mass firings of Baath Party members.

The report is also expected to say that the Iraqi government has made progress in other areas, including reducing violence in Anbar province.

Hear the president on the Petraeus report at http://go.philly.com/

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