Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton Thursday warned that a US withdrawal from Iraq must not duplicate the "arrogance and incompetence" she said marred the 2003 invasion.
Senator Clinton was joined by defeated 2004 Democratic nominee Senator John Kerry to introduce a bill requiring the Pentagon to keep Congress informed about contingency planning to safely withdraw 160,000 US troops.
"We must not redeploy out of Iraq with the same combination of arrogance and incompetence with which the Bush administration exhibited deploying into Iraq," Clinton told reporters.
"We did not have a smart plan to go in, but we will do everything in our power to be sure we have a smart plan to get out."
Clinton wrote the legislation after a spat with the Pentagon over planning for troop withdrawals, which saw a senior civilian defense official accuse her of aiding enemy propaganda.
"Withdrawing troops from Iraq will be dangerous and difficult," Clinton said.
"We must oversee the Bush administration, as the Constitution demands, and four years of mistakes and mismanagement in Iraq require."
Kerry, who co-sponsored the bill said poor planning by the Bush administration had cost US lives.
"This administration has made planning a dirty word," he said.
Clinton said her clash with the Pentagon was directly responsible for a secret briefing on draw down planning by the Defense under secretary Eric Edelman to the Senate Armed services committee on Thursday.
In July, Edelman rebuked Clinton after she asked how and if the US military was working out how it could extricate US soldiers and supplies from Iraq.
"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda," Edelman wrote to Clinton, prompting her to slam his "outrageous" position.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week attempted to smooth over the row, saying he was actively involved for an eventual draw down of US troops.
But in a television appearance this week, Vice President Dick Cheney praised Edelman's letter, prompting Clinton, senator for New York, to write in turn to Bush.
