September 22, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 09, 1428

WASHINGTON: Unable to block the start of President George W. Bush’s Iraq war troop increase last winter, congressional Democrats now are powerless to hasten its end.

So much for a public mandate to end a war, waged by a determined commander in chief with the support of his Republican party’s minority of lawmakers.

And so much for the often-repeated Democratic prediction that Republicans would be more inclined to break with the administration late in the year than they were late last year, early this year or in midyear.

“There’s no question that the White House has been very effective at making this a loyalty test,” Sen. Chuck Hagel, a vociferous Republican critic of the war, said on Wednesday after his party blocked legislation to guarantee the troops as much time at home as they spend in the war zone.

Their lack of votes evident, and their anti-war allies increasingly restive, Democrats looked toward the 2008 elections more than a year away.

“Now it is Bush’s war, with the Republican senators,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, as if it hasn’t been for four years. Republicans have sustained Bush’s policy repeatedly despite the loss of Senate control last November and the persistent polls showing that both the president and the war are held in poor esteem.

The Senate vote marked the latest in a long line of disappointments for Democratic critics of the war, who have repeatedly cleared legislation through the House of Representatives only to see it succumb to a Republican-led filibuster at the other end of the Capitol. A filibuster is a parliamentary tactic that keeps legislation off the floor unless three-fifths of the 100 senators, 60 members, vote to bring it back.

This time, defeat also signalled that a costly summer campaign by anti-war groups had failed to persuade a single Senate Republican to abandon support for the conflict. Instead, a counter-campaign by the administration and its allies, including Bush’s trip to Anbar province to promote military progress in late August, led seamlessly to Gen. David Petraeus’ nationally televised appearance before congressional committees.

Already outmaneuvered, whether it realized it or not, MoveOn.org greeted the war’s top commander at his hearings with a blistering, personal attack in the form of a full-page ad in The New York Times. “Betray Us,” it said, accusing him of cooking the books for the administration.

Republicans recognised a political gift when they saw one. They displayed the advertisement over and over at the Petraeus hearings, placing Democrats on the defensive even before Petraeus had cleared his throat to endorse a slow withdrawal of the troops sent in last winter.

Sen. Gordon Smith, one of six Republicans to support the at-home legislation, said the outcome was dictated by two factors: “Petraeus’ effectiveness and MoveOn’s counter-productiveness.”

A few weeks ago, Democrats had sensed that 60 votes might be within reach on the legislation to guarantee time at home for the troops. A vote in July showed 56 votes, and since then, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson had returned from a long recuperation from a brain hemorrhage and Republican Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had flirted publicly with supporting the proposal.

None of them switched, but Republican Sen. John Warner switched the other way, and in so doing, doomed the legislation. An earlier supporter, Warner turned against the measure, saying the Pentagon had persuaded him that the measure could complicate efforts to manage the war.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a former Democrat-turned-independent and a supporter of the war, said the result was a “very significant vote that effectively means that Congress will not intervene in the foreseeable future” in the war.

Hagel, the war opponent, did not disagree with that political assessment but added an ominous warning for fellow Republicans.

“The reality is we have a crescendo coming,” he said, and they will eventually have to choose between a “war, a very unpopular war by any measure ... versus self-preservation”.

Republicans face a daunting political environment as they look ahead to the 2008 elections. They must defend 22 of 34 seats on the ballot, with four incumbents already facing stiff challenges, and retirements give Democrats additional opportunities. The endangered Republican incumbents, Sens. John Sununu, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins and Gordon Smith, accounted for four of the six Republican votes in favor of the amendment.—AP