By John Tozzi
The four House members reached – U.S. Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside), Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) and Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills) – ranged from highly skeptical to outright opposed to the idea of a troop “surge.” But they were united on one point: that a Democratic Congress will provide the oversight of the Bush Administration that the GOP did not.”We will be bringing to light what the president is doing and when he's doing it and how he's doing it, as opposed to how things were done in the past,” Meeks said.While Meeks said he was dead set against sending more troops, Ackerman, the incoming chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, said Monday he would wait to hear Bush's proposal, which was expected Wednesday.”I'm going to listen to his case,” he said. “I believe he's not going to make the case because it's been years and years and years and he's never made the case.”Weiner called the idea of increasing troop levels “folly” and said the United States should plan for a phased withdrawal. Crowley also opposed adding troops. “That wasn't the message of Nov. 7,” he said.While Bush appears to be promoting a “surge” in troops to secure Baghdad and disarm militias, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report released after the Nov. 7 election called for shifting the mission of U.S. forces to primarily supporting Iraqi security troops. The report also recommended talking to Iraq's neighbors – including Syria and Iran – to help stabilize the country.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel. The idea of negotiating with the leader of the budding nuclear state touches a nerve for some members of Congress, particularly those such as Weiner and Ackerman with strong Jewish constituencies. Ackerman said he supports putting the option “back on the table” as long as talks were held through appropriate channels.Weiner cautioned that talking to “rogue states” such as Syria and Iran is not a necessary first step, as the study group report says it is. But, he said, “relying more on diplomacy to resolve this is ultimately a smart thing to do.”Crowley said the three factions in Iraq – Sunnis, Shia and Kurds — should form a “loose confederation” rather than the strong, centralized government that the United States has been trying to prop up. Weiner suggested removing American forces to the borders to “not get into the fight that's going on in the schoolyard but prevent more bullies from coming in.”All four stressed that a Democratic Congress would always support the troops, but they said the president would no longer have a “blank check” from Congress with no oversight.”We have to demonstrate to the American people that Democrats know how to lead,” Crowley said.Reporter Craig Giammona contributed to this report.
