Clinton steps up Bush criticism as she mulls presidential bid

Clinton steps up Bush criticism as she mulls presidential bid
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Senator Hillary Clinton has stepped up her criticism of the Bush administration, blasting its new Iraq strategy while Washington buzzes with speculation she will announce her presidential candidacy soon.
The former first lady's offensive on the war, which she backed in a 2002 Congress vote authorizing it, came amid expectations she will add her name to the list of Democrats running in the 2008 campaign by this weekend.
Political observers believe she could announce
her intentions this week to catch up to two other Democratic heavyweights, Senator Barack Obama, who took this week a key step towards running, and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards, who has already declared his candidacy.
Clinton, who visited Iraq last week, Wednesday criticized President George W. Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, expressing skepticism that it would help secure the strife-torn country.
"I don't see where our putting in more American troops is likely" to help end the violence, she said, adding that she returned from her trip to Iraq with "a strong opposition to the president's plan for escalation."
"I do not think that this strategy has a very high level of success at all attached to it. In fact, I think that at best, it's a holding pattern," she told NBC television.
Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, had been criticized by the Democratic Party's left wing for voting to authorize the war in 2002 and not taking hard stance against it later.
She was seen by some US media this week as a target of veiled criticism from one of her potential presidential rivals, Edwards, who on Sunday criticized lawmakers not speaking out against the war, saying "silence is betrayal."
Her criticism of Bush's strategy Wednesday came as Democrats used their newfound control of Congress to challenge the Republican president's Iraq strategy, introducing a non-binding Senate resolution opposing his plan.
Clinton offered her own strategy for the war Wednesday, saying US troop levels should be capped at January 1 levels and gradually withdrawn from Iraq. There are currently about 132,000 US troops in Iraq.
She also expressed support for the non-binding Senate resolution, which states that sending more troops is "not in the national interest of the United States."
Clinton, whose trip also took her to Afghanistan, said she planned to send a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, insisting that the administration should give higher priority to battling insurgents in Afghanistan.
"Let's focus on Afghanistan and get it right. We still have a chance to do that," she told CBS television.
The Democrats' victory over Bush's Republicans in the November elections, which ended their 12 years of congressional dominance, was largely attributed to voter anger over the Iraq war.
MoveOn.org, a leftist pressure group, has already launched a campaign to press Congress on the war.
"This Congress was elected with a mandate to end the disaster in Iraq," Tom Matzzie, a MoveOn.org director, said last week. "MoveOn is going to demand that members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, show leadership that the President won't."
Matzzie welcomed Clinton's change of tone on the war.
"We look forward to seeing Senator Clinton use her powers as a senator to stop the escalation and move towards a redeployment," he said Wednesday. "A key test is how any senator puts words into action. We would welcome her future leadership
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