WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced legislation Tuesday that requires any increase in U.S. troops in Iraq to have congressional approval.
The bill anticipates that President George W. Bush will make a troop "surge" in Iraq part of the new strategy he is to unveil Wednesday, CNN reported. A number of strategists have called for a temporary increase in U.S. forces to help the Iraqis quell violence neighborhood-by-neighborhood in Baghdad.
Kennedy, a member of the Armed Services Committee, called the proposal "an immense new mistake."
Kennedy, one of 23 senators and 22 Democrats who voted against the invasion, has been calling for troop withdrawals since 2005, but the party is not united.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was re-elected this year as an independent from Connecticut, has joined Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-N.C., in a call for more troops, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Armed Services chair, has also said he might support a temporary troop increase.
