One Last Dem Word Against the Surge…

ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf Reports: In their last opportunity to get in a word opposing the impending surge of American troops into Iraq before President Bush announces it tonight, Senate Democrats joined with retired Gen. Wesley Clark and Jon Soltz, an activist and Iraq war vet on Capitol Hill.

Their two main points against the surge were:

1. A surge in troops does not represent a change in strategy, which is what the American people called for in November. Clark called it a "tactical maneuver, not a change in strategy." Schumer called the surge a "surge in search of a strategy."
2. The strain of the surge will be foremost on the fighting men and women and their families. "It exposes more soldiers and it rips at the fabric of our volunteer force," Clark said.  "The strategy has been wrong from the beginning and it’s the soldiers and their families that have been paying the price.  Clark also called the surge "a political gesture made at the expense of our men and women in uniform and their families who are paying the price."

Later, the Army Reserve Captain, Jon Soltz, who served on the ground in Iraq several years ago, said " If the President tells the American people that 20,000 more troops is going to change things in Baghdad, he is deliberately misleading them."

Soltz asked Bush to "Think of the soldiers who are having to fight a war and die so this President doesn’t have to admit he made a mistake."

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said "This is not a surge, but an escalation and I worry that it represents a new troop plateau." Reed pointed out, "we’ve had surges before." and "adding 20,000 troops to a city of 6 million people won’t help."

Reed also said, "We’ve had milestones before. But milestones without a time line won’t work."

What they’re going to do about the surge:

When Soltz, the young vet, was asked if Congress should cut off funding for his fighting brothers and sisters, he took a long pause before saying he was not entirely versed on the issue of Congressional funding. But, he said — "there’s 5 people down the street that have never served in the military or have never been shot at that think otherwise.  And it’s very difficult to challenge their power….I support Senator Schumer and General Clark and Senator Murray and Senator Reed and how they want to do that. My expertise is in fighting insurgents and reacting to IEDs in Baghdad and not parliamentary procedures in the US Senate."

On differences of opinion in the Democratic party about how to react to the surge (specifically, Kennedy’s resolution calling for Congressional approval for the surge as opposed to Reid and Schumer’s non-binding resolution) Schumer said, "I spoke with Senator Kennedy last night and he agrees with our strategy. This resolution won’t be the last thing we do. But we have to gauge support."

He clarified that Democrats will offer their non-binding resolution some time next week and it will ask Senators if they approve of the President’s surge.

Schumer said he expects a "some" amount of Republican support as well as near Democratic unanimity.

Clark, in a vein similar to what was said by academics before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, said the U.S. has to bring in Iraq’s neighbors — "Somehow, with a bag of carrots and sticks, we need to find a way to bring the people in the region together."