US Democrats prepare new strategy on Iraq war

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Despite losing the Iraq war budget battle to the White House, Democrats are giving a positive spin to Congress' vote on it last week while gearing up for new, tougher battles on the unpopular war.

Just hours after President George W. Bush got his demand for a war budget stripped of troop withdrawal dates, Democratic leaders said the fight was not over.

"Its the start of a whole new direction in Iraq," said House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "No more blank check for the war in Iraq," she told Bush.

"We have moved the national debate on the war, and now every month this president faces another challenge to his policy," warned Majority Whip and second-highest Democratic Senator Richard Durbin.

Lacking a clear majority to withstand compromise, Democrats nevertheless have vowed to keep harking on the single issue that most worries Americans and that boosted the Democrats to retake Congress from the Republicans last year.

Bush's new reports on the Iraq government's progress are due in June and July, marking the start of fresh debates in Congress on next fiscal year's war budget beginning October 1, and the Democrats' new offensive.

Later in September, the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is also due to report on the course of the war.

"The democrats in Congress already were successful in forcing the president to ask for Iraq funds through the regular appropriations process," said Dartmouth University political science professor and analyst Linda Fowler.

"The deadline for withdrawal of (US) troops will be back on the agenda and I think there will be a number of Republicans willing to suport it as we get closer to the 2008 (presidential) elections," she told AFP.

Seventy-six percent of Americans think the war is going badly, according to a recent CBS News/New York Times opinion poll. Forty-seven percent said it was going very badly and 61 percent said the US should have stayed out of Iraq.

With more than 100 US troops killed, May is shaping up as one of the bloodiest months in Iraq since the occupation began in 2003.

After six months at the congressional helm, Democrats are also upbeat about having made "progress on key issues for the American people," according to Pelosi.

Since they took over House and Senate, Democrats boast of passing the first minimum-wage hike in 10 years, an aid package for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, farm subsidies, better health insurance for poor children and war veterans, and legislation to clear the justice system of political influence.

Pelosi adds that "House Democrats will continue to work hard every day of this Congress to make bipartisan progress to restore accountability, defend our country, achieve energy independence and fight global warming, grow our economy and strengthen our families."

The more liberal wing of the party, who strongly oppose the Iraq war, have openly reproached their leaders' pragmatism and feel outraged that domestic initiatives included in the war budget were used as political bargaining chips.

"It looks like the desire for political comfort won over real action," said Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold.

Democrats in Congress traded off "a minimum wage for maximum blood," said House Democrat and 2008 presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich.