Reid open to short-term troop surge

WASHINGTON – The Senate’s top Democrat offered qualified support Sunday for a plan to increase U.S. troops in Iraq, saying it would be acceptable as part of a broader strategy to bring combat forces home by 2008.

President Bush’s former secretary of state, however, expressed doubts any troop surge would be effective, noting U.S. forces already are overextended. “The American Army isn’t large enough to secure Baghdad,” said Colin Powell, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

About 140,000 U.S. troops and about 5,000 advisers are in Iraq. Combat troops make up less than half of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose party campaigned in the November elections on changing course in Iraq, said he would be open only to a short-term troop increase.

“If the commanders on the ground said this is just for a short period of time, we’ll go along with that,” said Reid, D-Nev., citing a time frame such as two to three months. But a period of 18 to 24 months would be too long, he said.

Asked if victory were possible, Powell said: “If victory means you have gotten rid of every insurgent, you have peace throughout the country, I don’t see that in the cards right now. What we are going to have to do is try to bring a sense of order and security to the country, even if there continues to be low-level violence and insurgency.”