As Iraq Debate Ensues, Alexander Calls for President to Follow Iraq Study Group’s Advice

Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander says President Bush needs to stop using the Iraq Study Group’s report as a bookend and take its advice.

Alexander made his remarks as the U-S Senate began debate todayon a Democratic resolution calling for the withdrawal of most U-S troops in 2008.

Senator Alexander says he won’t vote for any resolutions “that seek to micromanage” the war, but he also took aim at President Bush, calling on him to report to Congress “on the last few weeks’ of progress in Iraq”. Alexander says not only does there needs to be a new strategy in Iraq, but a consensus on that strategy.

“To put it bluntly, a majority of the American people do not now have confidence in the President’s course in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group offered the President an opportunity to say, ‘Okay, here is a different approach suggested by a bipartisan group of distinguished Americans. It is not my strategy. It is theirs,’ the president could say. ‘I accept it and, for the good of our country and the armed forces fighting for us, I ask you to accept it.’ ”

Alexander says such a move would show presidential leadership, not weakness, quote, “recognizing that the president’s job is not only to choose the right strategy but to successfully persuade at least half the people he is right.”