IRAQ: The US Senate has rejected two Democratic proposals to start withdrawing American forces from Iraq, a move vice-president Dick Cheney said would "validate the terrorist strategy".
A proposal by Democrats Carl Levin and Jack Reed to start pulling troops out of Iraq before the end of this year was defeated by 60 votes to 39. A more radical proposal by John Kerry and Russ Feingold to withdraw almost all US forces by July 1st, 2007, was defeated by 86 votes to 13.
"Withdrawal is not an option. Surrender is not a solution," said Senate majority leader Bill Frist.
Republicans welcomed the Iraq debate because it highlighted divisions among Democrats, most of whom want a phased withdrawal of troops but do not want to set a date for a final withdrawal.
The Bush administration says US troops will stay in Iraq until Iraqi security forces can deal with the insurgency that followed the US invasion in 2003.
Mr Cheney said yesterday that the Democrats' proposals offered comfort to America's terrorist enemies. "You got to remember that the Osama bin Laden types, the al-Qaeda types, the Zarqawi types that have been active in Iraq are betting that ultimately they can break the United States' will," he said.
"There's no way they can defeat us militarily. But their whole strategy - if you look at what bin Laden has been saying for 10 years - is they believe they can, in fact, force us to quit, that ultimately we'll get tired of the fight, that we don't have the stomach for a long, tough battle, and that we'll pack it in and go home.
"The worst possible thing we could do is what the Democrats are suggesting. And no matter how you carve it, you can call it anything you want, but basically it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight," Mr Cheney said.
Democrats said the Republicans were blindly following a failed policy that has already cost the lives of more than 2,500 American soldiers. "We need to say to President Bush you need a plan for Iraqis to take control of their own country," said Senate minority leader Harry Reid.
Republican John McCain said a withdrawal of US troops tied to a timetable rather than conditions on the ground would be falling prey to wishful thinking. "We have just one choice in Iraq and that is to see our mission through to victory. And it's this classic reduction of insurgency. That's how every insurgency in history has been defeated," he said.
Opinion polls show that most Americans want a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, and a clear majority believes the war was not worth the American lives it has claimed.
Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee, the only Republican to cross lines, faces a primary election challenge from Republicans angry that he has frequently defied Mr Bush.
Then he faces the general election in the Democratic state.
"Nobody can accuse me of playing politics with voting decisions such as these," he said, adding every vote "will come under attack by those either on the left or right".