WASHINGTON -- With polls showing American support of the Iraq war slipping, and with each day bringing news of more explosions and casualties, Sen. Ted Stevens said the Bush administration needs to give the public more information about the war's progress and the U.S. plan for ending it.
Stevens, in an interview with Alaska reporters Thursday, said there are "rising sentiments" in Congress concerning the continued redeployment of reserve and National Guard units in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If not properly understood, (those feelings) could jeopardize the president's successfully concluding our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.
Stevens, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and other Republican leaders met with Bush at the White House on Tuesday. Stevens wouldn't say what they talked about, but press reports say that he and Warner urged the president to better articulate the game plan in Iraq.
"I do believe it's necessary for us all to understand that, really, this is not Vietnam," Stevens said Thursday. "We're in Iraq for reasons entirely apart from the reason we went to Vietnam. And we are in a situation where we have to find a way to successfully conclude our operations there."
Denying the president the forces he needs to be successful in Iraq is not an option, Stevens said, according to a recording of the interview. The Daily News was excluded from the interview, because Stevens is angry about the newspaper's reporting on his financial investments.
"We have to find a way to keep people informed so that not only people in the Senate but their constituents understand what we're doing and how we're proceeding," he said.
Democrats in Congress have stepped up the criticism of the war lately. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, for example, called it a "grotesque mistake" in a speech on the floor this week.
"It is not making America safer, and the American people know it," she said.
Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com.
