Day: January 29, 2007

By OLIVIER KNOX

Before the November US elections, President George W. Bush promised never to put US troops “in the crossfire” of Iraq’s warring sectarian groups. Last week, he made clear that his new strategy would do just that.

“This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we’re in,” he told a war-weary US public in his annual State of the Union address, as he defended his decision to send 21,500 more US troops into battle.

By PAULINE JELINEK

In an action branded a backdoor draft by some critics, the military over the past several years has held tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on the job and in war zones beyond their retirement dates or enlistment length.

It is a widely disliked practice that the Pentagon, under new Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is trying to figure out how to cut back on.

By MAGAN CRANE

The White House is sticking to its plan to send extra US troops to Iraq, resisting public disapproval and opposition Democrats determined to pass a damning resolution against the strategy.

Vice President Dick Cheney said the plan, which includes sending 21,500 more soldiers to the war-torn country, should be given time to work.

By BETH FOUHY and ERIN TEXEIRA

Being black doesn’t necessarily mean White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has a lock on black voters.

Sen. Barack Obama (AP Photo)

By THOMAS FERRARO

U.S. lawmakers backing President George W. Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq sought support by calling for Congress to set “benchmark” goals for the Iraqi government, but a top Democrat predicted on Sunday that few will stand with him.

“You will not find 20 percent of the Senate standing up and saying the president is headed in the right direction,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told ABC’s “This Week.”

By MATT APUZZO

Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s perjury trial continues to expose the inner workings of the White House media machine.

Cathie Martin, the former spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney who last week discussed the preferred White House strategies for beating back negative media stories, returns to the stand Monday.