Bush and Democrats trade accusations on troops

President George W. Bush and congressional Democrats accused each other on Saturday failing to support US troops, showing no signs of backing down in their fight over funding for the Iraq war.
Democrats want to attach a date for a withdrawal from Iraq to a $100 billion funding bill but Bush insists he would veto such a measure, setting up a battle of wills over control of the unpopular war.
Bush has invited House and Senate Democratic leaders to a meeting at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the bill and used his weekly radio address to hammer Democrats for taking an approach that he said amounted to "handcuffing our generals".
"Our troops should not be trapped in the middle. They have been waiting for this money long enough," Bush said. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Democrats were defending the troops' interests. "Democrats are continuing to fight to fully fund our troops and give them a strategy for success worthy of their sacrifices," Reid said in a statement.
"President Bush continues to insist that we follow his same failed strategy that has drawn our troops further into an intractable civil war," Reid added, citing the bomb attack this week on the Iraqi parliament as evidence of what he said was failed policy.
While Bush has said he wants to discuss the funding dispute at the meeting with Reid and other Democrats, White House officials have made clear that he has no plans to negotiate. Some lawmakers have said they see a possibility of coming up with some compromise language that emphasises "benchmarks" to gauge the progress of the Iraqi government in taking responsibility for security, sharing oil revenues equitably and meeting other goals. But any deal is likely weeks away.
Next week, House and Senate Democrats are expected to try to iron out their own differences on the bill. Both chambers have backed timelines for a troop withdrawal as a condition of the war funding but with slightly different approaches.
The House version requires all US combat troops to withdraw from Iraq by September 1, 2008. The Senate's approach would begin troop withdrawals this year with a goal, not a mandate, that combat troops leave by March 31, 2008.
Democratic leaders have promised to send the legislation to Bush by the end of this month, with the expectation that he would veto it. Congress would then have to produce new legislation - either the "clean bill" Bush wants providing combat funds with no conditions, or the money plus some softer conditions Bush might accept.