Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., the deputy Democratic leader, said next week’s Senate vote on the Levin-Reed measure will provide "a moment for Republican senators who question the policy of this administration to demonstrate that they really want change. If they vote for Levin-Reed it’s a vote for change,’’ Durbin said. The Levin-Reed measure triggers mandatory – though unspecified – U.S. force reductions.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Levin-Reed amendment might permit between 20,000 and 70,000 U.S. troops to remain in Iraq next spring after the new, reduced mission takes effect. "But it won’t be 160,000 troops. We won’t be surging anymore,’’ Reid said. He referred to Mr. Bush’s strategic surge of new troops this year in an effort to improve security around Baghdad.

Despite the new strategy, Rhode Island's junior senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, said in a Senate floor speech, "little has changed on the ground. Violence has worsened. Sectarian fighting goes on virtually unabated, with deadly attacks taking a severe and relentless toll. While courageous Americans die, Iraqi politicians argue and stall’’ over legislation to reconcile the nation’s warring ethnic and religious groups.

Reed pointed to the news of a new intelligence report that the al-Qaeda terrorist network has reconstituted itself in a remote part of western Pakistan. Reed interpreted the report as meaning that the U.S. effort in Iraq – and in particular the loss of thousands of American troops -- "has had no tangible effect against al-Qaeda." That "underscores the failure’’ of the administration’s strategy, he said.