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US lawmakers kept up pressure on President George W. Bush to revise his Iraq policy a day after a senior US diplomat said Washington had shown “stupidity” in the conflict.
Bush has faced growing calls to shift course in the conflict with two weeks to go before US elections that opposition Democrats hope will end his Republican Party's congressional majority.
Amid the political debate over the way forward in Iraq, a senior US diplomat used harsh words to surprisingly admit shortcomings in American policy.
“We tried to do our best (in Iraq), but I believe that there is a great room for strong criticism, because — undoubtedly — there was arrogance and stupidity in US (dealing) with Iraq,” Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, said in an interview with the Al-Jazeera news channel late Saturday.
“We should practice some humbleness in the question of Iraq. Undoubtedly — and (as) the United States did acknowledge — there have been many mistakes in the (US) foreign policy in Iraq,” he said in Arabic.
The US State Department later disputed the accuracy of the quotes.
Amid a surge in sectarian violence in Iraq and one of the bloodiest months for US troops since the 2003 invasion, Bush conferred Saturday with top advisers and generals to discuss strategy.
The White House, however, said, the meeting had been scheduled long ago and was not in response to the spike in violence.
Opposition Democrats, who hope to take control of Congress in November 7 elections, pressed on with their calls for a new strategy in Iraq. Some Republicans have also urged the administration to take a different tack.
“The truth of the matter is there's a need for radical change in policy,” Senator Joseph Biden, an influential Democrat on foreign affairs, told the “Fox News Sunday” television program.
“There's a need for a political solution in Iraq and a bipartisan solution here at home. Without those two things happening, there is no possibility, in my view, we succeed in Iraq,” Biden said.
Top senators from both parties said it was crucial to press Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to dismantle militias to end the sectarian violence plaguing Iraq and settle political differences.
The New York Times reported that the United States is drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to address the sectarian violence and assume a larger role in securing the country, with the threat of penalties if Baghdad fails to reach critical benchmarks.
The plan would not threaten Maliki with a US troop withdrawal, the Times said. Some Democrats have called for a timetable for a US pullout, which the White House rejects.
Republican Senator Arlen Specter said he was “encouraged” by the reported plan but that the White House should act quickly.
“I don't believe that a shift in tactics ought to wait until after the (November 7) election. There are too many casualties there,” Specter told CNN's “Late Edition.” “If we have a better course, we ought to adopt it sooner rather than later.”
Republican Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the reported blueprint showed “the forward thinking” of the US administration.
“The key to this thing is impressing upon that (Iraqi) government that they've got to come to grips with what is causing this increase in violence and killing,” Warner told “Fox News Sunday.”
Warner, who earlier this month said the administration would have to rethink its Iraq strategy if the violence is not brought under control in the next 90 days, said the US should not set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal to pressure Maliki.
“We should not indicate a fixed lock-in, because the situation is very dynamic,” the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee told Fox News.
“It's gotten worse. It's gotten fractured,” he said. “This is a fragile situation.”
