Levin: compromise near on Iraq troop resolution

Levin: Compromise near on Iraq troop resolution Levin: Compromise near on Iraq troop resolution Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Thursday he believes there are "very minor" differences between competing Senate resolutions seeking to oppose dispatch of new troops to Iraq, and that those differences could be worked out quickly if a leading Republican is willing to meet. Levin said he hopes to meet with Sen. John Warner, R-Va., to try to merge a resolution he has backed with one Warner introduced this week. "We can work this out if Sen. Warner wants to work this out," Levin said after a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Levin said he and three other senators who are backing one of the resolutions have asked Warner for a chance to work out language to which he can agree. Such an agreement would be the strongest signal yet to the Bush administration that Congress will not back his plan, which would deploy about 21,000 additional troops in an effort to quell violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. Levin, along with fellow Democrat Sen. Joseph Biden and Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe, have introduced a nonbinding resolution that would put the Senate on record as opposing the troop increase. Warner, who chaired the Armed Services Committee before Levin took over this year, has introduced a similar measure, though without some wording Republicans had suggested was partisan. The Senate is scheduled to debate Levin's resolution next week; Warner has suggested he would introduce his measure at the same time. But agreeing with Warner on wording would unite each party's leading defense expert in the Senate, and do much to accomplish the bipartisan rejection of President Bush's plan that Levin has said is his top priority. Levin and Warner had at least two private conversations during Thursday's hearing, though Levin said they did not discuss the substance of their disagreements. Warner's office did not immediately return a call seeking comment. But Warner took perhaps the toughest tone of any senator, Democrat or Republican, during the hearing, at which top military and diplomatic experts from outside the Bush administration gave their views on the Bush plan. Warner asked retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, one of the primary architects of the "surge" strategy, why Iraqi forces couldn't surge to Baghdad instead of U.S. troops. When Keane said the Iraqi army isn't yet capable of such operation, Warner reacted harshly, saying he believed he and other lawmakers had been misled by Bush administration officials who claimed Iraqis were gaining in strength and capability. Warner also said he was troubled by command arrangements for the attempt to secure Baghdad. Military officials have said a joint Iraqi-U.S. command would oversee the operation; Keane said at one point that U.S. and Iraqi officers down to the platoon and company levels would have to work out disagreements essentially on the fly. "Are you aware of any precedent," for such a divided arrangement, an incredulous Warner asked Keane. "If there is, I don't have it at my fingertips," Keane replied.