U.S. Democrats launched a fierce attack on President George W. Bush's new Iraq strategy that he announced on Wednesday night, saying the new plan "moves the American commitment in Iraq in the wrong direction."

In the televised Democratic response immediately after Bush's prime-time address to the nation, Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin said "escalation of this war (in Iraq) is not the change the American people called for in the last election."

"Instead of a new direction, the president's plan moves the American commitment in Iraq in the wrong direction," he said.

Durbin blamed Bush for ignoring the "strong advice of most of his own top generals" by ordering more troops to Iraq.

"Twenty thousand American soldiers are too few to end this civil war in Iraq and too many American lives to risk on top of those we've already lost," Durbin said. Over 3,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war started in March 2003.

"It's time for President Bush to face the reality of Iraq," and it is time to "begin the orderly re-deployment of our troops so that they can begin coming home soon," he said.

In a joint statement following Bush's address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin said that American voters "delivered a strong message of no confidence in the president's Iraq policy and clearly expressed their desire for a new direction" in last November's elections.

The statement said Bush chose to escalate the U.S. involvement in Iraq's civil war by proposing a substantial increase in the number of American forces, and the proposal endangered American national security by placing additional burdens on the already over-extended U.S. military.

The Democratic leaders said that rather than escalating the U.S. involvement in Iraq by sending additional troops, a new plan should include shifting greater responsibility to the Iraqis for their own security, and transforming the principal mission of U.S. forces from combat to training, logistics, force protection, and counter-terrorism operations.

The new plan should also include a phased re-deployment of U.S. forces that should start in the next four to six months; and an aggressive diplomatic strategy, both within the region and beyond, they said.

Source: Xinhua