Biden: Only 20 Senators Will Support Troop Increase

A non-binding vote, symbolic, maybe even two-faced, but ultimately useless in itself. The dying goes on...
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January 28, 2007

Biden Encourages Debate Over Iraq Troop Increase

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 — Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted today that no more than 20 senators would voice support for the president’s troop increase in Iraq when the Senate debates resolutions opposing that plan.

Mr. Biden and other Democrats also angrily contested the Bush administration’s suggestion that their criticism of the war was emboldening the nation’s enemies.

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Biden’s prediction will come true once the debate begins this week or next. The senator emphasized that a full debate by the Senate over President Bush’s troop increase was more important than the actual vote totals that the various resolutions get.

Republican leaders are working hard to limit defections, and competing resolutions may dilute support for a resolution backed by Mr. Biden that finds a troop increase would not be “in the national interest.”

By BRIAN KNOWLTON

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