From The Australian:

Republicans want exit strategy
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
November 17, 2005
GEORGE W. Bush's Republican allies in Congress are starting to engineer some distance from the US President over the conduct of the Iraq war.

Republican leaders in the Senate yesterday called on the President to prepare an exit strategy for about 160,000 US troops in Iraq.

With Mr Bush touring Asia and suffering worsening polls from already record low levels, Republicans want Mr Bush to better explain his strategy for victory in Iraq.

Republicans are growing increasingly anxious about the turn of public opinion against the war ahead of mid-term congressional elections next year.

Mr Bush's own party is demanding that 2006 be a year of "significant transition" in which Iraqi forces take the lead in securing their own country.









While the Republican move in the Senate came amid a Democrat push to adopt a specific timetable for withdrawal, yesterday's vote in the Senate still represents the legislative branch's most aggressive intervention yet into the conduct of the war since the invasion began in March 2003.

Adding to the pain for Mr Bush was the fact that the vote was held while he was abroad, something Congress usually tries to avoid. The proposal by Bill Frist, the Republican Senate leader, and John Warner, the veteran Virginian Republican and chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee, was passed by 79 votes to 19.