Anti-war Democrats Wednesday accused the White House of plotting to saddle the next president with a "quagmire" in Iraq, as the top US war general faced a second day of intense scrutiny in Congress.
On the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, General David Petraeus and US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker faced two House of Representatives committees, as political turmoil swirled after their Senate appearance Tuesday.
President George W. Bush's spokeswoman meanwhile left little doubt that he would back the general's call for freezing US troop withdrawals for at least 45 days after July, which sparked outrage from Democrats.
"We are stuck in a twilight zone in Iraq," said Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid.
"When violence is up, the president says we cannot bring our troops home. When violence dips, the president says we cannot bring our troops home.
"President Bush has an exit strategy for just one man -- himself -- on January 20, 2009."
Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said top administration officials must accept the judgment of history over the war and would soon leave and "hand over the quagmire of Iraq to the next president."
But the Republican reaction to the Petraeus comments revealed the gulf between the parties over the war.
"The success achieved by our troops is undeniable," said the top House Republican John Boehner.
"Violence in Iraq is down, the Iraqi people are taking greater responsibility for the future of their nation, and our troops are beginning to return home after success, not defeat."
The hearings were the latest political flashpoint over Bush's troop surge strategy and a war stretching into its sixth year, which has now killed more than 4,000 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
On their second day of all-day testimony, Petraeus and Crocker parried demands by Democrats for an exit strategy and basked in praise by Republicans.
Petraeus danced through a political minefield, when grilled on how he would respond to a future president who demanded a withdrawal from Iraq.
"I can only serve one boss at a time, and I can only execute one policy at a time," he said. "I am sworn to the concept of civilian control of the military; I fully support it. And we execute the mission that we have at that time."
The exchange reflected the difficulty Democrats have had in attacking Petraeus and Crocker, who have emerged as the main defenders of Bush's policy, even though their jobs are apolitical.
The three senators running for president, who confronted the general and the envoy in Senate hearings Tuesday, meanwhile took the row over Iraq back out onto the campaign trail.
Republican candidate John McCain, a strong war supporter rejected Democrat Barack Obama's suggestion that the United States should talk to its sworn foe Iran over stabilizing Iraq, as part of a regional "diplomatic" surge.
"I do not think that it would be helpful in any way to enhance the prestige of people like that," McCain told Fox News.
The other Democrat, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday demanded answers from Bush on Iraq, while campaigning in Pennsylvania, and said Congress must approve any long-term deal with Baghdad on stationing US forces in the country.
"I call on the president to answer the question that General Petraeus did not," Clinton said, while campaigning in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
"What is our end game in Iraq given the failure of the surge to achieve the objective that the president outlined for it?"
Both Clinton and Obama have pledged to bring US troops home if elected.
Petraeus on Tuesday recommended that once the last of the 30,000 extra troops pumped into Iraq last year are withdrawn in July "we undertake a 45-day period of consolidation and evaluation."
White House press secretary Dana Perino signaled on Wednesday that Bush would back the plan.
"You've heard the president say for years that he's the type of commander in chief who listens to his commanders on the ground and to the experts who can provide the best advice to him," Perino said.
In view of "the president's practice of listening to his commanders on the ground, it would not be to type if he did not listen to them," she told reporters.
Bush is expected to outline his decisions in a public statement on Thursday.
