Rice: US may still be in Iraq in 10 years
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-20 21:28

The figures represent a sharp drop-off from strong support for the war in the early going. The war also had overwhelming support in Congress, including from most of Rice's questioners Wednesday.

"One thing the Vietnam generation learned is no foreign policy can be sustained without the informed consent of the American people. And we haven't gotten that informed consent in terms of them knowing what they're signing on to from here on out," Sen. Joseph P. Biden Jr., D-Del., told Rice. "So I'm not looking for a date to get out of Iraq. But at what point, assuming the strategy works, do you think we'll be able to see some sign of bringing some American forces home?"

Rice did not address the Vietnam comparison, and said the question of withdrawal is one for military planners.

"I really don't want to hazard what I think would be a guess, even if it were an assessment, of when that might be possible," Rice said of a troop withdrawal.

Later, Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., told Rice that her response to questions about U.S. troop withdrawal leaves open the possibility that U.S. forces could be in Iraq five or even 10 years down the road. Rice did not dispute that.

"I don't know how to speculate about what will happen 10 years from now, but I do believe that we are moving on a course on which Iraqi security forces are rather rapidly able to take care of their own security concerns," Rice responded.

Boxer read quotation after quotation from administration figures about Iraq, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's February 2003 prediction that the war could "last six days, six weeks, I doubt six months," to make the point that the war has not gone as the administration predicted.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, read portions of a letter from a father who lost a son in Iraq. The letter called the war a "misguided effort."

"We have to really level with the American people," Voinovich told Rice. "This is not going to be over in two years ... we're not going to just be able to walk out of Iraq and this is going to be over."