Pelosi's trip: She believes more strongly that withdrawal will help region

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CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Pelosi's trip: She believes more strongly that withdrawal will help region, says troops deserve better policies than president's
- Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Monday, January 29, 2007

(01-29) 04:00 PST Washington -- Three days in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even more certain of her view that moving troops out of Iraq is the best way to bring stability to the region, she told The Chronicle on Sunday.

Speaking from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, Pelosi said the nation owes its troops a better policy than the one now being pursued by President Bush, and emphasized the importance of reconstructing the war-torn region.

As Congress prepares to challenge the president's Iraq policy, Pelosi offered no indication that her meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had softened her opposition to Bush's plan to send 21,500 more American troops into the war.

The high-level meetings highlighted Pelosi's determination to place Iraq near the top of the agenda for the new Democratic Congress. It also emphasized on a world stage the enormous differences between Congress and the White House over the way forward.

"We owe them better policy. We owe them better initiatives,'' Pelosi said after meeting the past three days with scores of U.S. troops and military commanders, as well as the top political leader in each of the three countries. "I believe redeployment of our troops is a step toward stability in the region.''

Pelosi's visit comes as Congress readies a resolution opposing Bush's plan for new troops to Iraq. The Senate is expected to debate the resolution as early as Tuesday, and the House is expected to take up a similar measure soon.

A clear majority of senators oppose the president's troop increase, although competing resolutions and a filibuster threat make vote counts difficult. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., predicted Sunday that fewer than 20 senators -- not even half of the 49 Republicans -- would be willing to voice support for Bush's plan during the coming debate.

At the White House on Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said withdrawing from Iraq would have a direct negative impact on efforts to fight terrorism throughout the region.

"There are consequences of what Congress does under these circumstances,'' Cheney said in an interview with Newsweek magazine, according to a transcript distributed by the White House.

Pelosi said the president was aware in advance of her trip -- a plan that was kept secret from the public for security reasons until Pelosi had departed -- but aides said there was little coordination with the White House.

Pelosi said Bush had wished her well during a private conversation in the Capitol on the night of his State of the Union address last Tuesday, and she said she looked forward to briefing him on her findings sometime after her return today. Pelosi's last visit to Iraq was nearly two years ago, when the Congress was controlled by Republicans and the country was more evenly divided between those who supported the war and those who opposed it.

Pelosi was accompanied by six House members, including the chairman of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. She said she told al-Maliki what she has said repeatedly at home for many months -- that there must be political and diplomatic initiatives to match the military effort, and there are disappointingly few signs of such successes.

"We are very proud of the effort made by our military, but this cannot be won by our military alone,'' Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she did not explicitly warn al-Maliki of the U.S. public's waning patience with the war, saying, "The (November) election spoke more eloquently than anything else we could say.''

By bringing an array of committee chairs and a Republican -- five of the seven lawmakers voted in favor of authorizing the use of force in Iraq in 2002 -- Pelosi said she intended to deliver the message to al-Maliki that "this is not about the politics of America, it's about the policy (in Iraq) that the American people are objecting to.''

Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid of Nevada have sent Bush several public letters urging a new Iraq policy that would redeploy troops and shift the emphasis from combat to training and reconstruction.

"Sadly, there was nothing that we saw there that would say that the plan we have been proposing should be changed,'' Pelosi said of her visit.

Pelosi said the prime mission of the trip was to offer support for the troops, whom she said were quite interested in meeting with the delegation.

"Our purpose was to salute our troops and commend them for their patriotism, their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families.''

The region's volatility was underscored by a bomb that exploded Friday at a Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, where Pelosi and the delegation had intended to stay. Other accommodations were quickly found.

Aides to the House members kept news of the trip secret until the delegation had departed Washington for fear that such a high-level group might become a target. Pelosi described the group as "very, very, heavily guarded.''

After meeting with al-Maliki in Baghdad, the group traveled to Pakistan for a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf, then to Afghanistan where they met with President Hamid Karzai.

After meeting with Karzai on Sunday, the House lawmakers issued a statement commending his leadership and expressing general support for the White House's recent request for $10.6 billion in assistance. They reiterated support for additional U.S. forces for what they called the forgotten war.

The statement also warned about the nation's escalating poppy cultivation, which the group said is "undermining the efforts of the Afghan government and coalition forces to stabilize the country.''

In addition to Pelosi, lawmakers traveling in the group were Reps. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the Armed Services Committee; John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Pentagon's appropriations; Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.; and Dave Hobson, R-Ohio.

Lantos reiterated Pelosi's opposition to Bush's war plans.

"What we saw and heard in Baghdad leaves me even more convinced than before that the administration's 'stay the course' approach will only lead us deeper into disaster,'' Lantos said. "Placing more troops in harm's way in order to shore up a failed policy is unconscionably reckless and only compounds the mistakes already made.''

E-mail Marc Sandalow at msandalow@sfchronicle.com.