Bush's plan for more troops to Iraq faces Democratic challenge

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is telling lawmakers he will send thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq's two most troubled regions, in a plan that Democrats are resisting as a major escalation of the 3 1/2-year-old war.\nOn Tuesday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he expects Bush to announce that up to 20,000 additional troops will be sent to Iraq, but will not say how long the extra forces will be there. Levin, who spoke to reporters a day after meeting with White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, said he thinks Bush will signal that the overall U.S. commitment in Iraq is not open-ended.\nThe extra forces would be sent to Baghdad, which has been consumed by sectarian violence, and the western Anbar Province, a base of the mostly Sunni insurgency and foreign al-Qaida fighters, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and others said following the session with Bush.\nA day before Bush's nationally televised speech describing his proposal, Sen. Edward Kennedy, a longtime critic of Bush and the war, will propose legislation denying him the billions needed to send more troops to war unless Congress agrees first. Though it was unclear whether the bill would ever reach the full Senate, it could at least serve as a rallying point for the most insistent foes of the Iraq conflict.\nAs Bush's speech drew near, White House press secretary Tony Snow insisted that the president was still listening to ideas from lawmakers.\n"I'm not saying that the president's going to go back in and shred it and start over," Snow said. "What I'm saying is the president still continues to have an open mind, because this is a way forward. This is not, 'Wave a wand and it's going to happen.'"\nSnow conceded that Bush has a challenge in persuading a war-weary public.\n"The president will not shape policy according to public opinion, but he does understand that it's important to bring the public back to this war, and restore public confidence and support for the mission," Snow said.