Republican Iraq proposal

Interesting that the senate Republicans make a move like this when Bush is out of the country.

From AP:

Mindful that the Iraq war is growing increasingly unpopular, the Senate is calling for 2006 to be a period of significant political and military transition in Iraq that will create conditions for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The GOP-controlled chamber was voting Tuesday on a pair of proposals — one Republican and one Democratic — that tell President Bush what the Senate believes the U.S. diplomatic and military policy on Iraq should be.

Whichever proposal prevails will be added to a defense bill the Senate is hoping to complete work on as early as Tuesday.

The bill includes provisions that, taken together, mark an effort by Congress to rein in some of the wide authority lawmakers gave the president following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For instance, the measure includes language imposing restrictions on the treatment of foreign detainees and requiring details on purportedly secret CIA prisons overseas.